Sixteen
by Nadie2
Summary: A sequel to "Are You My Mommy." Jack's clone Jon heads back in time to help 16 year old Sam raise their Loki implanted child. Mrs. Carter's death left the family falling apart. Jacob is a workaholic. Mark is an alcoholic. And Sam refuses to ask for help. Can Jon piece the family back together? How have they changed the timeline?
1. Chapter 1

**Note: Samantha Carter is awesome. I know it. You know it. But she is not holy. She is not perfect. She is not NECESSARY. If Samantha Carter before birth the world would go on. If she decided in season four or season eight to give up the Stargate for a chance at a family and happiness you would have supported her decision. So let her flounder and decide her life at sixteen. No matter what she decides the world will go on. It's going to be ok. And who said she can't have a baby at sixteen and go on to save the world? Seriously, people, remember Janet Fraizer is a mom. And Sam is going to have help with it.**

Samantha couldn't believe that she was still sick. She thinks maybe if she lies in bed long enough, the nausea might go away. Sometimes it did. But not often. How long had she been sick? Long enough that she couldn't remember not being sick. She was just going to have to accept that this is the new normal. She's going to want to puke for the rest of her life.

She looks down at her stomach. How is she getting this fat if she's sick all the time? It's not like she's vain, if fact she rarely thinks about how she looks. But she is getting quite a pouch on her stomach. She puts her hand on it.

Strange, she'd been blaming the fact that she'd missed a few periods on the fact that she was so thin. She'd heard that could happen in heath class. But she wasn't thin anymore, so why had she missed so many periods?

A panic comes up in her heart? What if there is really something wrong with her? Her family is barely limping along as it is. If… if she's sick, what's going to happen to them?

Suddenly she feels movement in her stomach.

What the hell? What causes a stomach to move? Is there a bug in there or something? Can you feel a tape worm move?

Wait, babies moved.

But there was no way, **no way** she could be pregnant. She was a founding member of the never-been-kissed club. The only place she'd ever slept was in her own bedroom. There was no way.

And yet she felt violated. And terrified.

"It can't be," she mutters to herself.

She stands up, trying to ignore the nausea which rises inside of her. It proves impossible. She barely makes it to the bathroom.

"Sammy?" her father says.

Is it Friday already? It's the only day that her father leaves for work after the sun comes up. And that's only if there isn't a good excuse to go into work early.

"Are you ok?" her father presses.

"Fine," she says, as soon as she is sure that all that is coming out of her mouth is words.

"Are you sick, honey?" he asks.

Yep, pretty much every day since I can remember, thanks for noticing, Daddy. "I'm fine."

"Do you need me to call the school, and tell them you can't come in today?" he asks.

That would actually be helpful, somewhat surprising coming from her father. "That might be a good plan," she says tentatively.

"Ok, ah… I have to go into work in an hour, but I could send an Airman to look after you."

Yeah, and then I could send him out for a pregnancy test, and he could hold my hand as I take it. "No, thanks, I think I'm just going to sleep anyway."

"Ok, sweetie, you feel better now," her dad says with a touch of the emotion he used to have before her mother died. Back when they were a family. Before everything fell apart.

-0-0-0-

She isn't sure why the eighth test is the one that she finally believes. But she is finally convinced she's pregnant. Immaculate conception. She's still a virgin. And yet she's going to be having a baby. How?

She was going to head home, but she didn't feel like she could do that kind of thinking she needs to do right now while she is in her dad's house.

So she just sits on a park bench.

"Hi," a teenage boy says sitting down next to her.

"I'm going to go ahead and save you some time. I have a lot on my mind. And I am not going to be interested in anyone who is hanging out at a park at 10:30 on a weekday."

"Aren't you hanging out at a park at 10:30 on a weekday?" he asks.

A slight grin covers her face.

"And I know what's on your mind," he adds.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Sam says.

"Her name is Jane."

"What?" Sam says with a quirk of an eyebrow.

"Your daughter. Her name is Jane. Your dad is going to tell you to give her up for adoption. But he's only going to do that, because he's scared that he screwed you and your brother up. But he didn't. And you can do this."

"What the hell do you know about my family?!" she shouts. She's also pretty worried about the fact that she apparently looks pregnant. She thought she would have more time before that happened.

"I know you worry about Mark. You blame yourself for Mark," he says softly.

She glances at him. She knows that her brother's problems are public knowledge. She just didn't know that her thoughts about her brother were public. "My dad tells me to watch him," she says.

"A sixteen-year old-is not equipped to deal with a teenager with a drinking problem. You shouldn't be expected to deal with it. And Mark is going to be fine."

"I wish I could believe that," she mutters.

"When he's sixteen, he gets alcohol poisoning. You rush him to hospital. You take care of him when he goes through withdrawal, and you walk him to meetings for the first little bit."

She stares at him.

"By the way, I'm from the future," he says.

"Right," she says with a laugh, standing up to walk home.

He races after her, "Just hear me out. There will come a day when you will believe a lot stranger things."

"I get it, you saw a pregnant teenager in the park, and thought I was an easy vulnerable target. Well, guess what? Just because I'm going to be a mother doesn't mean I'm a slut!"

"No, you're still a virgin," he says, grabbing onto her elbow with his hand.

She turns to him trying to figure out if his face betrays some sarcasm that didn't get into his voice.

"And you have no idea how this is happening to you."

She stares at him more.

"But I do."

"Bastard!" she shouts, pulling away from his grasp.

"Oh for crying out loud!" he explains, running after her, "I did not mean that the way it sounded."

"Ok, what did you mean?" she asks with a voice that sounds strangely like an accusation.

"I'm a time traveler, and you told me what happened to you."

"How could I explain it to you when I don't even know what happened?" she asks, and there are tears in her eyes.

He knows that hugging right now is a big risk. But he also knows Sam, and he knows that is what she needs. "C'mere," he says, holding out his arms to her.

She falls into his arms, and soaks his shirt with tears for several minutes. When she pulls away, she says, "I'm sorry."

"It's ok," he says smiling at her.

"So how did I get pregnant?" she asks, and he can tell that she may or may not believe what he says.

"See, there is this crazy little alien by the name of Loki. In the future, you are a Major in the Air Force, and your CO is a Colonel. Not too long ago Loki cloned the Colonel, and that resulted in me."

"That's not the way cloning works," she protest.

"Nope, not the way that cloning works when humans are doing it. See, the Asgard have been cloning people for a really long time. It's the only way this species of aliens reproduce. They create a clone, and then they make it grow rapidly. Then the put the memories of an adult in there."

She raises her eyebrows.

"Huh, this is the first time I've been doing the technobabble. That's usually your job."

"Her job. We've got to separate these people from us," she says.

"You're absolutely right," he agrees. "Anyway, that alien has time travel. And apparently he also took some of the Colonel's, ah…" he glances nervously at her, "And he implanted it in you."

"So you're basically telling me that I'm having my commanding officer's baby," she says.

He grins at her, "Sort of, yeah."

"So then the alien gave you a ride back in time with his time machine?"

"Nope, an entirely different set of aliens left a time machine behind when they became extinct. Luckily, I'm one of the few people on Earth that has the special gene that allows me to operate it. That is actually one of the reasons why the aliens were so interested in me in the first place."

"So why were they interested in me?" she asks, looking at him with teary eyes.

"Are you kidding?" he asks. He grabs her chin, "Maybe, because you are the most intelligent, beautiful, and just plain amazing person this world has ever known."

She blushes.

"Seriously, I've often heard you referred to as one of this nation's greatest treasure."

"And was the person saying that person you?" she asks, laughing.

"Yes."

"Did they love one another?" she asks suddenly. She feels like she going out on a limb here. There is no way that she could grow up to fall in love with her commanding officer. But there is also no way that she could be pregnant. Impossible things are happening all the time.

"They did."

"Did they do anything about it?" she asks. She feels that if he says yes, she's getting what she deserved. She's getting the punishment quite a few years before she did the crime, but she still deserves it.

"No," he says.

"What's your name?"

"Jonathan O'Neill," he says softly.

"I can't believe that I am buying this story," she says, shaking her head.

"Well, the mind that can figure out wormhole physics, reverse engineer complicated alien technology, and blow up a sun can probably handle this story."

"So, you came back just to give me a glimpse of the future?" she asks bashfully.

"If that's what you want," he says.

"What else are you offering?" she says.

"The Colonel… he had a son."

She stares at him.

"He died. I'm willing to be anything from being Jacob's punching bag to your daughter's single father to your husband."

She stares at him. She must have heard him wrong.

"The only thing is… I have the memories of a fifty year old man, so..." he closes his eyes for a second, "Definitely not having sex until you're fully grown. If I was still him, and Charlie had lived… you'd be younger than my son."

"Gross," she says, crinkling up her nose.

"Yeah, a little," he admits.

"How old is fully grown?" she asks.

"Well, I guess we won't really know until we get there. But I'm guessing you'll be in your twenties."

"That's ok, I was going to do my career first anyway," she pauses, "Well, I guess that is all going to hell anyway."

"The first time, before we messed with time, you gave her up for adoption. And she turned out fine. Maybe that is still the thing that you want to do."

Sam puts her hand on her stomach, "Where you came from, did I have kids?"

"Not yet."

"Not yet? You just said you were fifty!"

"You're younger than me, in your late thirties."

"She's the only baby I will ever have. And she's your baby too. I'm not going to cast her away."

"Good," he whispers.

"I don't know about the rest of it," she says.

"That's ok, we've got time."

"How much time? How pregnant am I?"

"Almost five months."

"What?" she exclaims.

"You felt her move, right?" he says.

She nods.

"Yep, that doesn't happen until about five months."

"Maybe she's particularly athletic," Sam says with a smile.

He shakes his head.

"Wow," she says scared. "I have to… get diapers."

Jon tries to hide a grin. "You need to make a doctor's appointment, soon. And you need to introduce me to Jacob. Those are the first things. We've got a couple of months before diapers are an issue."

"I need to get a job, and figure out where I'm going to put her, and…"

"I brought some money from the future. It's not a lot, but anything you need right now we can get. I mean, sort of a car or something. And I got here yesterday, and I got a job. It's not anything that's going to make me rich, but… I can afford to take care of all the baby stuff and a cheap apartment for myself. I haven't found that apartment yet, but…"

"But she's my kid, I have to…"

He shakes his head, "What you have to do is finish school."

"What about your school?"

"I've been through this before. The Air Force fudged on my documents. They said I'm seventeen, and graduated a year early."

"What about college?"

"I don't know, we'll maybe worry about that later on."

"Ok, you want to, ah… come home with me?"

He nods, "And maybe we should get an appointment in today?"

"Do I have to?" she whines, reminding Jon that she is indeed a teenager.

"Honey, you're five months behind in pre-natal care."

"But we know the baby is safe," she protests.

He glares at her.

"Fine, you'll make the call?"

"Ya, sure ya betcha," he says.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: You can magically turn this chapter down a rating (from T to K+) by skipping the writing between the *'s. Or you could skip it if you don't want to watch Jon and Jacob have a super awkward talk about Sam's sex life.**

"So what seems to be the problem today?" the doctor asks Sam.

Sam hides her face.

Jon looks right at the nurse, "She's pregnant."

The nurses raises her eyes, "You're sure?"

"Very sure," Sam says putting her hand on her belly. "It moved again," she says, pulling her hand away at the unexpected motion.

"Can I feel it?" Jon asks. She nods, and he puts his hand on her belly. A thrill runs through him as he feels his daughter move for the first time. But it's complicated because he's feeling her move through the skin of the child who will become his second-in-command. Yeah, this was weird.

"Are you the father?" the doctor asks.

"Yeah," he says, smiling at Sam.

"Do you have any idea how far along you are?" the nurse asks Sam.

"Not really," Sam says before he can answer. She might have trusted most of his answers, but she didn't trust his answer on this one. She is positive that she can't be five months pregnant. She would have noticed something by now wouldn't she have?

"Ok, we'll start by drawing your blood, doing an ultrasound, and then we'll talk about some do's and don'ts of pregnancy," the doctor continues.

Jon gives her hand a brief squeeze. Electricity zooms through her hand. This morning she was a single virgin. Now she was pregnant and holding hands with a boy who has proposed to her.

"You're going to get to hear her heartbeat soon," Jon tells her.

She's going to be a mother. A mother.

-0-0-0-

"So, ah… TV?" Sam says after they've finished the homework that Jon picked up for her after the doctor's appointment.

"Well, that's kind of complicated for us. I mock the romance, you mock the sci fi, we both mock the action, and there isn't a whole lot left."

"Ok? Ah… what do we like to do together?"

"Fish?"

She raises an eyebrow, "Ok," he admits, "That's just me."

"Look, we play cards, and talk, and read next to each other, and watch the stars."

"Watch the stars?"

"Yeah, I have a really good telescope," he says.

"Well, I have my dad's binoculars, on the days that he doesn't take them for field exercises at least."

"Actually, good binoculars are as good as a cheap telescope."

"I know," she says.

"Right, I might be an amateur astronomer, but you become a professional astrophysicist."

"You know, I have some really great books about the stars."

"And do they have more pictures or formulas?" he asks suspiciously.

"I could probably find you a kiddie encyclopedia, Jon," she teases.

"Sounds good, you wouldn't want to get me anything that is going to be too far out of my intelligence range."

-0-0-0-

The plan had been to stick around until Jacob came home so that Jon could be introduced to the family. But at some point after eleven o'clock they both fell asleep.

Jacob Carter slinks into the house several hours later. He moved silently, knowing that Sam was probably asleep, and that Mark would be too, if he'd come home yet. Jacob didn't bother to flip on a light as he walked through the kitchen. He'd done it often enough in the dark that he wasn't in any kind of danger. But when he got into the living room, he heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like breathing coming from the couch.

He flips on the light, and sees his daughter and a boy lying on the couch. Their heads are on opposite sides, and his hands are around her foot like he was giving her a foot massage when they fell asleep. It's not exactly the most compromising position to find teenagers in, but it is quite late.

"Aten hut!" he bellows. He was expecting a reaction from Sam. It's not like he gave his children any real military training. But when she was a little girl one of her favorite games to play was Air Force. She used to love for him to give military orders, and to try to follow them. It was kind of like Simon Says, but she wore camo.

It's not his daughter who reacts to the words, though. The boy is standing at attention with a crisp salute before he even opens his eyes.

"Sir," the boy says.

"Dad," Sam says, yawning on the couch, "You finally got home."

"What the hell is a boy doing in the house after midnight?" Jacob asks.

"Sir, I'm sorry, I didn't realize the time. I fell asleep," Jon says.

"How late did you MEAN to stay?" Jacob asks.

"We were waiting for you to get home. Why are you home so late?" Sam asks, getting even more miffed than her father.

"I got home as soon as I could. My job is important. You know that, Sammy. Why were you waiting for me?"

"I wanted you to meet my boyfriend, Jon."

Jacob gives a brief nod toward him. "What were you doing with my daughter when she was too sick to go to school?"

"Well, for one thing, I took her to the doctor. I also made her supper, and picked up her work from school."

"You went to the doctor? Are you ok?" Jacob asks Sam.

"Yeah," Sam says with a weak smile.

"I think we should tell him," Jon says.

"No," Sam says, sounding panicked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jacob asks.

Sam starts to cry. Jon sits down on the couch next to her, and wraps his hands around her. "It's not going to be better if we wait," he says.

She nods her head, twisting her face in his shoulder until it actually causes him a little pain, not that he's going to complain about a nose digging into his collarbone. He's got bigger things to worry about. Jon briefly wonders how literal his offer to be Jacob Carter's punching bag is about to be.

Jon looks up at Jacob, "Sir, the reason why she went to the doctor today, is because she's pregnant."

"What?" Jacob bellows.

Sam starts to sob harder, and Jon puts an arm around her.

"Get the hell away from my daughter!" Jacob shouts.

"Sir, she's crying," Jon pleads.

"Well, she wouldn't be crying right now if you'd kept your hands the hell off of her," Jacob demands.

"She also wouldn't be crying if you weren't yelling," Jon points out.

"Get the hell out of my house," Jacob repeats.

"Sir, I'm not leaving until you're done yelling. I would much rather you yell at me than at her," Jon says.

"Stop it," Sam says, pulling her face away from his shoulder, "He shouldn't be yelling at you."

"The hell I shouldn't, he knocked up my daughter!" Jacob shouts.

"And you don't think that I had a say in this?" Sam asks.

"Just go to your room," Jacob says, "It's late, and you need your sleep."

"Are you ok?" Jon asks her.

Sam nods.

"Ok, I'll leave for the night," he says, pulling himself away from Sam.

"Where are you going to go, do you have a place to sleep tonight?" Sam asks.

"What? You don't have a place to live? A **homeless** teenager knocked up my daughter?" Jacob demands.

Years of black ops have made Jon very good at thinking on his feet. "My folks kicked me out when I told them about the baby."

Jacob just stares at him.

"I got a job today. I know that I am going to have to support my kid."

Damn, if it wasn't 15 below. He can just imagine having to explain to his grandchild one day that he'd allowed its father to die of exposure. Yeah, he might not be much of a father, but he sure as well wasn't going to let this kid DIE.

"You're going to stay here," Jacob says.

"What?"

"I can't send a kid out to sleep on the street. So you stay here for now. Maybe longer, it certainly wouldn't hurt the kid to have both of his parents live in the same house. But you will be in the guest room. There will be absolutely NO sex in my house," he pauses, thinking about how infrequently he's been home lately. He realizes that somewhere in his house was no doubt the place where this grandbaby was conceived. He's not exactly comfortable with this idea. "There will be no MORE sex in this house," he clarifies.

"Not a problem, Sir," Jon says, "We've actually decided not to do that anymore."

"Just… get to bed," Jacob demands.

-0-0-0-

Jacob Carter can't actually remember the last time that he slept more than three and a half hours at a time. Maybe the answer was never. When he was younger he used to just roll over and go back to sleep. But ever since his kids had been born, he'd gotten up to check at him whenever he woke up in the middle of the night.

He starts by looking at the empty bed where his son should have been. Jacob has stopped being surprised that his son is not in it a long time ago, although he's still disappointed by it.

Then he peaked in on his daughter. His pregnant daughter. Sleeping soundly, and snoring. When had Sam started to snore? Only since the pregnancy? His wife had snored during the pregnancy too, but only when she was much farther along. Or at least he thought so. How pregnant is she?

Tonight he has one more kid to check in. He peaks into the spare bedroom.

"I didn't mean to wake you," Jacob whispers, when the silent door opening causes Jon's eyes to flicker open.

"I'm sorry, Sir," Jon replies.

Jacob doesn't know how to reply to that. It's not like he can actually say, 'hey no big deal, all you did was get my daughter pregnant'. But anything else that he thinks of make him sound like an ass.

"Her life isn't over," Jon adds.

Jacob stars at him, "I don't think you understand how special she is. How smart she is. Ever since she was a little girl she wanted to be an astronaut. All of that is gone now."

"No, it isn't," Jon says, "The road to get there might have changed a little bit. But a baby didn't make her turn stupid."

"Although she was a bit stupid to end up with the baby," Jacob says. "Are you planning on sticking by her, Jonathan?"

"Yes, sir," he says, "I offered to marry her today."

Jacob feels like he should love this idea. Instead, he feels like he's been stabbed in the heart. He doesn't have much family left, and it feels like he is losing the biggest fragment of the broken family he has left. "What did she say?" Jacob mutters.

"She's thinking about it. It's one of many options we're discussing."

"You and I and my daughter are going to have to sit down, and have a talk about all of these options," he pauses, "How much time do we have?"

"She's five months pregnant," Jon mutters.

"Five months? Why did you wait so long to tell me?" Jacob asks trying to keep his rage at a low enough level that he won't wake up his pregnant daughter.

"We didn't know until this morning," Jon says.

"Why did it take so long to realize it?" Jacob asks, softer than he has been so far in this conversation.

*"I'll spare you the details, sir, but we didn't think that she could get pregnant, so we weren't exactly watching for the signs."

"I don't know who you got your sex talk from, but there is no method of birth control that is 100% effective," Jacob says, suddenly getting a twist in his stomach because he never gave his daughter the sex talk. He'd thought she was still too young for it. But she was sixteen, and that was wishful thinking. This was partly his own fault. If he'd talked to her, maybe she never would have had sex. Or maybe she would have been more careful, and wouldn't be having a baby right now.

He realizes her brother was also probably overdue for one. Although, the 'don't drink' speech hadn't exactly worked that well with Mark.

"Sir, it goes a bit beyond that," Jon says cryptically.

Jacob has no idea what the hell that means, and he isn't quite sure that he wants to ask. But the curiosity gets the best of him. "What does that mean, son?"

Jon blushes. He had a lie ready for this. A lie which would explain the intact virginity. It's a lie that he'd used on the doctor today, but it wasn't one that he'd intended on using with Jacob. "We weren't exactly, ah… there was no penetration, sir," he mutters, looking down.

Jacob's eyebrows almost hit the ceiling, "You knocked up my daughter by dry humping?"

"Yes, Sir," Jon says, his cheeks a flame.

"That sucks," Jacob says.

"Yes, Sir," Jon replies.

"Well, just to clarify, when I said no sex, that means that either of you should ever touch a part that would be covered by the other one's swimsuit, with ANY part of your body."

"We've learned our lesson, Sir," Jon mutters bashfully.

"I sure as hell hope so," Jacob mutters. He starts to head back down the hallway. He turns back, "What's your last name, son?"

"O'Neill," Jon replies, "Two l's."*

-0-0-0-

Jon hates the fact that he still has the instincts of a black ops soldier, even though he has little to no hope of ever using them again. When he hears the door open he's on his feet ready to do battle with his fists. By the time Mark stumbles into the house, he's in the hallway with a bat as a weapon.

He's surprised by what he sees. He knew that Mark was two years younger than Sam. He'd even done the math and figured out that that meant the kid was only fourteen. But he'd heard so much talk about Mark being a drunk, mostly before he came here, so he'd imagined someone a lot older. He'd never actually seen a fourteen year old drunk before.

"Who the hell are you?" Mark demands.

"I'm Jon," Jon says calmly, putting down the bat.

Mark seems confused by the calm. He looks around, "Mm in da wrong house?" he mutters.

"No, I'm a friend of your sister's," he says.

"Dad's gonna kill ya if he finds out Sammy's having a sleep over with a boy."

"Jacob knows I'm here," Jon replies, unfazed.

Mark looks at him in shock, "So my sister can do whatever the hell she wants, and I get in trouble every time I drink a sip of booze?"

"You had a hell of a lot more than a sip, and I'm in the guest room, not in your sister's room. Come on now, let's get you to bed."

"How long… you and Sammy been together," Mark slurs conversationally as Jon practically carries him down the hallway.

This is a part of the lie that Jon hadn't thought of up to now, and he'd constructed one heck of a covers story.

"Well," he says, "Eight months." He figures he ought to at least make it look like he and Sam dated a few months before their kid was conceived. But too long, and their lie was likely to be found out. He knew pretty much everything about her. Only, sometimes he got confused and revealed something that wasn't a part of her yet. But she didn't know very much about him.

"Eight months," Mark slurred, "How come she didn't tell me?"

"She did, in fact I met you a couple of times," Jon offers, pretending to be offended.

"Sorry man, I musta forgot," Mark says, looking bashful.

Jon inwardly groans. He was hoping the kid wasn't actually drinking to black outs. But guessing from the state of the boy, he probably was not going to remember this in the morning.

"Maybe you should drink a little less?" Jon offers.

"There are things… it's better to forget," Mark mutters, falling into the bed.

"I hear you on that one, man," Jon says, pulling off Mark's shoes and pulling a blanket over the already snoring boy. He stands watching him for a second, and finds paternal feelings stirring in his stomach. If you went by looks, Jon and Mark were about the same age. If you wanted to get technical, Jon had only existed for a few months (fewer months than his supposed baby, actually). But when Jon looked at him, he saw the son that had died.

Charlie would be eighteen by now, but he had the same blond hair. The same brown eyes. Mark's eyes came from his father, while Sammy got hers from her mother. Jon turns and heads back to his own bed while trying to think up a plan to save Mark, a few years earlier than he was saved the first time.

**Author's Note: Most people who become alcoholics try their first drink before age 12. Most are binge drinking at least occasionally by 14. So, I don't think that Mark's drinking is completely unrealistic. It would also explain the Mark/Jacob rift.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Warning: An angry drunk teenager swears.**

When Sam opens her eyes the next morning she thinks for a second that her mother is still alive. Then her heart clenches in fresh grief when she realizes that it can't be her. So who _is_ making breakfast? She sits up. Today is not a nausea day. Or maybe it isn't a nausea day because someone is making her breakfast.

She walks into the living room, and sees Jon pulling a waffle out of the waffle maker. "You like waffles and hate French toast right?" he asks.

She nods.

"Good, after I started to cook I was worrying that I got you confused with Daniel again."

"Who's Daniel?" she asks as he hands her the waffle. His eyes look at her for the first time this morning, and they go to bit of bare midriff. It never used to be bare, before the baby. She looks into his eyes, and was sort of expecting a typical male response. Instead, it's more like the face her dad would wear.

"Right, I'll go throw a shirt on," she mutters.

"It's not like you were going out in public like that," he says, "You're fine."

"So you're going to start monitoring my clothing choice?" she asks skeptically.

"I just want more than your skin between my daughter and the world. I'm being overprotective of her, and not you," he says.

"I'm going to grab a robe," she says.

She meets her dad in the hall.

"You up already?" he asks.

"Yep, Jon already made breakfast, and told me to go put more clothes on," she says, wrapping the robe around herself.

"If only he'd done that five months ago," Jacob mutters.

The two of them walk into the kitchen, "Morning, sir, do you like waffles?"

"Love them," Jacob replies, "And if you're going to live in my house you can't keep calling me 'sir'."

"General?" Jon suggests with a smirk in his eye.

"Jacob is fine," Jacob tells him, smiling at the joke.

"Ok, so where do you work, Jack? Jon? You mentioned that you had a job last night, right?" Jacob asks.

"Yeah, I'm working as a security guard. It's a day job for now, and after the baby's born, it's going to be overnight. That way I can watch the baby during the day. Of course, I'll get to see a lot less of Sam that way."

"You've thought this through," Jacob says.

"Yeah, and Jane can be on my insurance. Sam can't, unless we were married. But she's still on yours anyway, so…" Jon says with a shrug.

"So how long are you planning on staying here?" Jacob asks.

Jon looks at Sam, "I guess that depends on what kind of plan we come up with. I'm going to start paying rent when I get my first paycheck, Sir."

"So, what are you plans for the day?" Jacob asks the two young people.

"I think I need to go the mall, can Jon take me?" Sam asks looking bashfully at her father.

"Do you have your driver's license?" Jacob asks.

"Yes, sir, for over a year." A lot over a year he adds in his head.

"How old are you?" Jacob asks skeptically.

"Seventeen," Jon says.

"No way, you look Mark's age," Jacob says, squinting. "And how are you going to work during the day. Don't you have to go to school?"

"I've graduated high school," Jon says.

"My grandchild is not going to have college dropout for a parent," Jacob calmly informs him.

"Look, maybe I'll do the college thing one day, but…" Jon starts.

"If it's only about the money, I'll take care of the money until you're done with school," Jacob offers.

Jon looks down at the table. He's having to come up with more lies then he thought. He remembers from his black ops days, or rather from Jon's black ops days, that the best lies are usually close to the truth.

"My parents had a kid-when I was ten. His name was Charlie. They were too busy for him. I was, too. And he died. An accident, my dad left the gun out. But I regret that I didn't spend more time with the kid," he says. His stomach twists, blaming Charlie's death on his father. It might not have physically been him, but he still carries the guilt.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Jacob says softly, "And it wasn't your job to take care of him."

"No, but it will by my job to take care of Jane. And I intend to do that," he says firmly.

"Jane, you're having a girl?" he asks, looking from one to the other.

The boy nods, and a ghost of a smile comes on Jacob's face, "And the reason for the name Jane?"

"I don't know if we've really settled on it yet," Jon explains. After all that was a name that was given to her by her adopted family. He and Carter might choose something else for their daughter.

"What about mail-order college?" Jacob says, "You could probably study while you're at work."

"I'll think about that, Jacob," he says.

"You guys are so noisy," Mark says, walking out and holding his head.

Sam gets him some aspirin, and Jacob gets him a cup of coffee, silently.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Jon says, unnecessarily loud.

"His head hurts," Sam says with a soft voice.

Jon gets close to Mark's face, and speaks loudly, "Hangovers are nature's way of telling you that you drank too much!"

"Play nice," Jacob says.

"Tough love," Jon says.

"Do you know about him and your sister?" Jacob asks softly.

"Yeah, they've been dating for a long time. You haven't met Jon before?" Mark asks. Jon is pleasantly surprised at how well his lie last night actually worked.

"How come you never mentioned your sister had a boyfriend?" Jacob asks.

"It's not like our paths actually cross that much, Dad," Mark says.

"Did you know she's pregnant?" Jacob asks.

Mark runs over to the skink where he throws up. The smell quickly gets Sam running for the bathroom. Jacob runs after his daughter to help her.

"Damn it, Mark, do you know the last time Sam wasn't nauseous in the morning?" Jon asks.

"You know the last time _I_ wasn't nauseous in the morning?" Mark asks, rinsing his mouth in disgust.

"Yeah, well you did that to yourself," Jon says unsympathetically.

"So did she," Mark says.

"Don't be like that, Mark," Jon says.

"You're right, it's your fault that my sister's pregnant," Mark says, turning and taking a wild swing at Jon. Jon ducks it easily, and Mark sways dizzily.

Jon feels sympathy for him for the first time this morning, "Come on, bud, sit down and try to re-hydrate."

"Asshole," Mark says, glaring at him, "I can't believe Dad's letting you stay here and fuck Sam whenever you want."

"That's not what is happening," Jon says, "We have separate bedrooms."

"Dude, she's pregnant! You can't be claiming innocence, now."

"Listen, Mark, I'm not saying I didn't screw up. But I learned my lesson. I learned it like you should learn from that hangover. From now on, I'm not going to touch your sister," Jon says.

"Mark, I'm sorry," Sam says.

"Hey, sit down, and I'll get you another waffle," Jon offers.

Sam shakes her head.

"Ok, toast or anything?" he asks.

"No, I'm actually going to get ready for the day," she says. She then looks at Mark, "That is, if the pint-sized alcoholic is done yelling at my boyfriend."

"Sammy, he took advantage of you!" Mark bellows.

"No, he didn't," Sam says, shaking her head, "And the mistakes we made are not nearly as bad as the one you are still making. We're reformed. Are you going to reform as well?"

"You're not going to convince me to like the jerk who knocked up my sister," Mark says.

"Sammy, go get ready, we're fine," Jon says.

She gives him a dubious look before taking off.

"Listen, Mark," Jon says, when he's sure both Sam and her father are out of ear shot, "I'm manning up, Sam is womanning up, and Jacob is manning up. If you want to join the crowd you can be helpful and not stress out the mother of my kid and drink. Otherwise, you can keep being a loser. Your choice. But if you ever do anything to hurt or upset Sammy, I will hurt you, got it?"


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm going to buy you whatever you need. Where exactly are we going first? What do you need? " Jon asks when they are in her father's car.

"Clothes."

"We're going to go to the maternity store?"

"Well yeah, I guess afterward. As you pointed out, a few of my shirts are a bit too short."

"Ok, where are we going first?" he says befuddled.

"I need clothing… bigger clothing," she says.

"Bigger clothing that you can't get at the maternity store?" she asks.

"Exactly," she says hiding her cheeks with her hands.

"Are we talking socks?" he asks.

"Bras, you idiot!" she blurts, hiding her face.

He laughs, "Yeah, I forgot about that part of pregnancy."

"I haven't, jeez, I've been having this problem for over a month, but I didn't know what it was happening."

"If you needed a new bra for over a month, why didn't you just go buy a bra?"

"I'm sixteen, and I don't have a job. I have to ask my dad for money."

"So?"

"Can you imagine yourself asking Jacob Carter for money for a bra?"

"Well, not exactly, I think he'd look at me pretty strangely if I asked him for a bra."

She glares at him.

"But, if I was his daughter, then yeah, I'd ask him for anything, because I'd know he loved me," Jon says seriously.

"Maybe some other Jacob loved some other Sam," she mutters quietly.

"No, your father loves you," Jon says firmly. "But let's get back to the whole idea of you not feeling comfortable asking him for anything. Your mom's been dead for over a year. What have you been doing?"

"It's not like I can't ask him for a pair of pants or something."

"Ok, but… what about… stuff for your period?" he asks.

She's surprised by his complete lack of squeamishness about the topic, "Well, I haven't had to worry about that lately."

"No, but…" he says.

"I just used my lunch money."

"Jeez, Carter, you gave up food for tampons?" he exclaims.

She flushes red, "Why do you call me that?"

"It's what he called her," Jon admits.

"Did she call him Jon?" Sam asks him.

"No, he went by Jack, but she called him 'Colonel' or 'sir'. Mostly 'sir', but like it was a name," Jon says.

"And how would you feel if I called _you_ 'sir'?" she asks.

"Ok, I get it, what do you want to be called, Sam, Samantha, or Sammy?" he asks.

"Sam usually, Sammy on special occasions," she says.

"You got it, Sam," he says.

-0-0-0-

The whole time Jon sits outside of the bra store his cheeks are a bright flaming red. He remembers the look of relief on Sam's face when he handed her some money, and announced that she wasn't going to go inside with her.

She finally comes out with a bag which displays the stores name a bit too boldly, and cheeks that are actually a brighter shade of red than his.

"You know, underwear isn't anything to be ashamed of," he tells her.

"You're one to talk," he says.

"Well, the other sex's underwear is a little different," he says, "I have no problem talking about my own underwear."

"Please don't," she pleads, "And don't say 'sex' either."

"Ok, gender," he amends. "Are you ready to endure the maternity store?"

"I'd really rather not," she whines.

"Well, if the rest of your clothes don't fit you any better than those pajamas, I'm not exactly sure that you have a choice."

"Fine," she sighs.

He goes in with her this time, but he doesn't go back to sit in the chair by the fitting rooms. She sort of wants his opinions on what she should buy. Especially on how much she should buy. After all, she _is_ spending his money. With the bras it was easy, she needed a certain number, and that's how many she bought. It was way under the amount of cash he handed her before she went into the store, so she figured she was good.

But he was here, and didn't hand her cash so she didn't know her limit. And if she was going to have to wear these clothes for the next four months, she would actually need quite a few things. But, if she could only wear them for the next four months… she didn't want to get to many things, because it just seemed like a waste.

She tried on a sun dress. It's exactly the sort of thing that she loves to wear, but it's not exactly practical. After all, it's February. So it will only be warm enough to wear it for a tiny bit of her pregnancy. She ought to get something really practical. Something that she is going to be able to use for her whole pregnancy.

She goes out to ask his opinion.

He's carrying a little basket, and inside of it are already a pregnancy book and a parenting book. He standing before a display of teddy bears, and seems to be examining each one for softness. None seem to be holding up.

"Jon," she says softly.

He turns to her and smiles, "That is beautiful, and very you."

"I think you mean her," Sam says.

He tilts his head, "Nope, you go for the earth tones more when you grow up. You still have that delightfully colorful thing going on that only a teenager can pull off."

She smacks him in the arm. Then she grows serious, "I didn't know we were getting stuff for the baby," she says, looking at the shelf before them.

"Well, we might not. And if we do, it's only going to be one thing. I mean, it's too early to get the rest of the stuff, and we haven't even decided where we are going to live. I just thought we might get one thing, you know, to make it seem real."

She nods her head.

"Ok, so go try on some more stuff. You've got a nice dress, but you're going to need at least a couple of pairs of pants, and a bunch of shirts, but you like skirts way more than pants," he remembers.

"Are you sure you want to buy me that much stuff?" she asks.

"I think we've already established that I want a layer of clothes between my baby and the world at all times," he teases.

"Right, I'll go try on some more stuff."

-0-0-0-

Sam was starving by the time that they got out of the maternity shop, but after seeing the amount of money Jon had just dropped on her she wasn't about to mention it. He walks by the pretzel stand and says, "One pretzel with peanut butter dipping sauce please."

"Are you kidding!" she exclaims, "You like that too?"

He laughs, "No, I'm not bizarre like you. But I knew that you did like it, and that pregnant women get hungry fast. Especially when their brothers cause them to lose their breakfast."

"Thanks," she mutters, a bit sadly. He looks at her for a long minute before he is able to figure out where the sadness is coming from.

They sit down on a bench, "So it's really unfair that I know all kinds of things about you, and you don't know almost anything about me. So, go ahead, ask me anything."

"Anything?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. He nods. "Ok, how old are you?"

"Three months."

She laughs, "Fine, how old is he?"

"Well, this year he's thirty-two years old. But where I came from, he'd just toppled fifty."

"How old was his son?" she asks, with her eyes going soft.

"Nine years six months, and eighteen days old," he replies.

"What happened to his wife?"

"She left him," he says.

"Jerk," Sam mutters.

"No, he… I… deserved it. I was depressed. I was thinking about killing myself," he admits.

She looks at him with panic in his eyes.

"Which would have been unbelievably selfish. I mean, she'd just had her son die in her arms. Did I really want to add a dead husband to the mix? It's not like it could have helped Charlie anyway."

"You don't still want to…" she asks, unable to finish the sentence.

He puts an arm around her, "No, not for years."

Just then a girl walks up, "Hi, Samantha!"

"Hey Liz!" Sam says, wiping her mouth and standing.

"Oh my gosh! You, like, never come to the mall. Who's this?" she asks, ogling Jon in a way that is so obvious that it makes his skin crawl.

"This is my boyfriend, Jonathan O'Neill," she says.

"Boyfriend? Oh my gosh, since when?" Liz squeals.

"Eight months now," Jon says.

"What!" the girl exclaims, "How come I've never seen him around at school or anything?"

"He's already graduated," Sam says with enough pride that makes Jon glad he had that as part of his cover story.

"Oh my gosh, an older man. No wonder you've been keeping him a secret. You didn't want to give any of the rest of us a chance to steal him from you," Liz says with a wink.

"Yeah, well it was nice meeting you," Jon says, trying to steer Sam away from a girl who is really giving him the creeps.

Liz's eyes fall on the packages, and grow huge. Then they look at Sam's stomach.

Everyone stands there for a long moment, trying to figure out if they should say something or not.

"Bye," Sam finally croaks out. They are a long way away before Sam manages, "Do you think she knows?"

"Damn," Jon says, "I just thought of a really good lie. You were shopping for you aunt's baby shower!"

"Well, that would have been useful a few minutes ago."

"I know, we could turn back and tell her now. But after that deer in the headlights look, our cover is pretty much blown."

"Everyone is going to know by Monday morning!" Sam whines.

"Well, it's not like you could keep it a secret forever. After all, you were going to start WEARING the clothes, right?"

"Yeah, but none of them REALLY look like pregnancy clothes. Luckily I dress a bit like an older woman already. So they would have just figured that I was wearing clothes for adults, and had gained a little wait. I could have put off the big reveal for another month."

"Ok, and what would putting it off have really accomplished?" he asked her.

She sighs, "You're right. I might as well deal with this now, and get it over with."

-0-0-0-

"Wow, Sammy," Jacob says when she returns home, "I didn't know you were actually going to buy stuff." He should have known. Sammy hadn't gone to the mall just to hang out with her friends since before her mother died. She actually hadn't done anything with her friends since before her mother died. "I would have given you some money. You need money?"

"I took care of it, sir, it's all things she had to buy because of me."

"Call me Jacob, son," Jacob says, "And you're sure you can afford this?"

"Yeah, I have some savings, and get my first paycheck next Friday."

"So what did you buy?" he asks, looking at the bags.

"Some clothes," Sam says blushing.

Jacob grabs one of the bags. The one that Sam had hidden in the middle. He draws out one of her new bras. It's black and has lace on it.

"Are you kidding me?" Jacob bellows, shaking it before Jon's eyes.

Jon closes his eyes, and color flames up his cheeks. He honestly can't believe that Jacob Carter is shaking a teenage Carter's bra in front of his eyes. It's not that he's never seen Carter's bras before. After all, SG-1 shares a locker room, and every time Carter opened up the locker you could see anything that was inside.

But those bras were boring. Boring on purpose. The sorts of things that wouldn't distract a male teammate.

"The day after you promise not to touch my daughter, you go out to buy her lingerie? Are you kidding me?" Jacob says.

"Daddy, I…" Sam begins.

"Samantha go to your room," Jacob bellow.

She starts to protest again, but stops when Jon starts talking.

"Sir, she went up a bra size a while ago. She asked me to take her to the store, because she was too embarrassed to ask you for some money."

"What?" Jacob says.

"Yeah, I found out today that she's been too embarrassed to ask you for money for any 'girl' thing since her mother died."

"Sammy?" Jacob says, looking at his daughter with hurt in his eyes, "Is this true?"

She looks down, and gives her head a gentle nod.

He goes over to his wallet and grabs out a handful of bills, "Here, Sammy, and if that runs out, you let me know. Honey, you should never be ashamed to ask me for anything you need. And don't you dare be ashamed of being a girl."

He pulls her into a hug.

"He sat on the bench outside of the shop," Sam says.

"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions," he says to both of them.


	5. Chapter 5

"Sammy, I think we need to have a talk," Jacob says nervously.

"Is this THE talk?" she asks.

He nods.

"I don't really think I need the talk."

He laughs, "Seriously?"

"I mean, I feel like we're a little bit past the talk," Sam says bashfully.

"Yeah, not so much. There are obviously some things you don't know, and need too."

Sam's cheeks flame read, "I really don't want to do this, dad."

"I really don't care," he says. She squirms, and he takes pity on her. "Listen, before you were born, your mother and divided up the parenting tasks. Which things she was going to do, and which ones I was going to do. I mean, a lot of it changed after you actually arrived. But mostly we kept to the plan."

Sam looks up at him sort of relieved. She figures he's moved past any danger of having a sex talk with her father. She's wrong.

"This talk? It was definitely on her list. Actually, most of the stuff you need now was on her list. You know, I did half the diapers, and I read you your bedtime stories, and got you into the good schools, and punished you, and I provided for you. She was supposed to do all the feeding, and cuddling, and giving advice."

Sam looks up at her father intently.

"But she's gone now, and I have to try to do her part," tears come to his eyes, "Even though I suck at it."

"No, daddy," she pleads.

"Ok, so let's do this," he says taking a deep breath, "There are several alternatives to traditional sexual activity. Apparently you already discovered one of them, but there are…"

And Sam knows that no matter what, she can't let her father go on. "Stop, do you actually want me to do any of these 'alternatives'?"

"Really?" he asks.

"Really," she says.

"I'd rather no one touched you until you turned thirty."

"How about twenty," she says.

"Sammy, I want to be realistic," he pleads, "You're a pregnant teenager. You might think that it doesn't matter now. That you can do whatever you want now that you're getting the consequences anyway. But it's not true. There are emotional and mental consequences as well as physical."

She grabs her dad by the forearm, "I know that, and I swear to you, Jon and I are not going to be doing anything."

"Anything?" he says.

"Hugs and hand holding, that is it."

"Come on Sammy, not even kisses?"

"We've backed away from that right now," she says, looking down, "Look, I know this is kind of… weird, but… you're probably worrying a lot. Would it make you feel better if I promise to tell you before I… kiss… or do anything else? You know, give you a chance to talk me out of it?"

Jacob nods.

"I'm sorry," she says, rubbing her stomach, "I never imagined that I could be such a disappointment."

Jacob's eyes fill with tears. He moves his chair forward so that he can put a hand on his daughter's stomach. He brings his other hand up to her chin to make her look at his face. "You are not a disappointment to me. Never, Sammy. I am so proud of you. I'm disappointed that you did this. But that's different than being disappointed in you. In fact, I blame myself."

"Dad," she says shaking her head.

"If I'd been here for you more, it never would have happened."

"Daddy, this wasn't your fault," she says.

Suddenly the baby moves against his hand. "Wow," he says, "I can't believe that you're going to be a mother in four months."

"You're telling me," Sam says.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do when it comes?" he asks.

She shakes her head.

"You know, adoption is an option," he says softly, "You can still have everything that you want."

She shakes her head, "I can't put her up for adoption."

"Of course you can," Jacob says.

"No, if I don't keep her, Jon will."

"He'd raise her alone?" Jacob says, confused.

Sam nods.

"That's… brave," Jacob says.

"I love her, dad," she says firmly. From what Jon heard,told her she expects that this is going to be quite the argument.

"I know you do, and that is good. I just think you're making an emotional decision instead of a logical one."

"Seriously, dad, if there is one time in life to use emotional thinking this would be the one," she says.

"What I mean is… if you love her maybe you should convince Jon to let her go up for adoption."

"If you love her, let her go, really, Dad?"

"Sammy, do you honestly believe that this is the best way to raise a kid? I'm not saying anything against you, sweetie. But you're young, you're still in school. Jon, he could change his mind any time. It could get too serious for him, and he could be gone. And God knows you don't want me around your kid."

"Dad, you're a great father," she says.

"Right, you can tell by my pregnant daughter, and my son sleeping off a night of drinking," he says with sarcasm.

"Listen to me, dad," she says, "I promise we are all going to be ok. You, and me, and Mark, and Jon, and this baby. We're all going to be ok."

"Sammy, I really think the best way to protect her is to give her up for adoption," Jacob says.

"No way in hell," Jon says, coming around the corner. "I apologize for the language Sir," he adds.

"Jon, I think you're being selfish, son. I'm not saying that you wouldn't do right by her. You'd do your best for her. But you could give her to someone who is prepared for her. Who wants her," Jacob says calmly.

"_I_ want my daughter, and I'm going to be prepared for her," he says, sitting down next to Sam. "Sorry for intruding. I swear I wasn't eavesdropping. I just heard the last thing that your father said."

"I want her, too," Sam says.

"I didn't know you'd decided that," he says, giving her a million-watt smile, "That's great. You know where we're going to be living yet?"

"You're thinking of moving out?" Jacob asks, with panic in his voice.

Sam looks at Jon, and bites her lip, "I know you probably want to move out, and do our own thing, but I'm not really ready to leave home yet. I know that makes me sound like I'm a little kid or something, but…"

"Not at all," Jon says with a shake of his head, "It's actually what I was kind of hoping for." He turns to Jacob, "That is if you're ok with it, sir. I really want to live in the same house as my daughter. If you want me to get a place she comes I'll start looking."

"I'd rather have you two where I can watch you. I don't want my daughter going over to her baby daddy's apartment where there are no parents. Speaking of parents, I really want to meet yours."

"Ah, my parents aren't exactly speaking to me right now," Jon says.

"I know that they got angry. I understand that, believe me, I understand that," Jacob says, "But it's been a day since then, and I'm sure they regretted what they said. You need to contact them."

"Not so much," Jon says.

"They're probably worried sick about you. At least let me call them."

"No sir, I'd prefer that you didn't."

"Give me their number, son," Jacob demands.

"Dad, leave it," Sam demands.

"Honey, I have to be the parent in this…" he begins.

"I will call my parents tomorrow," Jon promises. "Ok, what do you guys want for dinner?"

"I don't know, I'll make something," Jacob says. He isn't usually home. But since he is, he figures he might as well do something productive. His wife used to make all of the meals. He would come home late and eat them. Since his wife died, he mostly makes sure that the kitchen is full of things that could be defrosted in the oven.

"No, I got it, my specially is Italian. I was just asking for requests."

"You cook?" Jacob asks in surprise.

"Yes, I cook, and clean, and I'll do whatever else I need to do to convince you that this family is good enough for your granddaughter," he says, giving Sam a pat on her back as he stands up.

-0-0-0-

Sam has the sudden fear that her father was right. She has no idea where Jon is. Maybe he really did take off without warning. Maybe he even lied about where he was from. Maybe he was really just a loser that saw a vulnerable girl in the park.

Then she sees him on the deck. She goes and sits down next to him on the step.

"Beautiful sunset," she says.

"You've got a nice deck out here, do you guys ever use it?" he asks.

"Not really."

There is silence for a while.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I'll just go inside," she says standing up.

"No, stay, I'm just sitting here trying to figure out what I'm going to do about getting parents."

"I don't know, couldn't you find someone to pretend to be your dad?"

"Yeah, back in the future I used to get Jack do to do it."

"Well, great, it seems like we've found a solution."

"Not exactly. See, in that time he actually knew that I existed."

"Well, couldn't you just explain yourself to him? You did that to me."

"Yes, well, he's considerably less open-minded than you are. Besides, he's married."

"Well, great, then you have parent_s_ instead of a parent."

"Oh no, there is no way that we are dragging Sara into this. It's not that she wouldn't understand. I mean, with all the years that he was in black ops she understood a lot of things, but I just… couldn't."

"Why not?"

"She'd be really jealous."

"Of who?" she asks.

He looks at her.

"Me?" she asks in surprise. She can't imagine anyone every being jealous of her. Least of all now.

"Yeah, she's… still waiting for a kid. She's been trying for a long time. She's actually pretty close to having a kid. But she doesn't have one yet. To find out that any version of her husband has a kid in any way with some other woman… It would destroy her. Add on the fact that the other woman is a sixteen year old who wasn't trying to get pregnant."

"And wasn't even having sex."

"…And it would kill her."

"Ok, so just tell her that she's going to have a baby soon."

"Yeah, there is no way that she would ever believe that. He has been telling her that for years."

"Ok, so just get him to do it. Make up some story about how your mother is too furious with you to come."

"I'll give it a shot," he says.

-0-0-0-

"Hey, Jack," Jon says. That's the nice thing about himself, or all the other versions of himself. None of them ever lock the front door.

Jack stares at him for a really long time, "Is there some explanation for this?"

"Sara isn't going to be home for a while, she's still working, right?" Jon asks.

Jon nods, "Yeah, why wouldn't she be working?"

"Well, she quit after Charlie was born."

"I don't know what kind of twisted stuff this is, but..."

"Here's the deal, Jack. I have a story to tell you. It's a crazy story, to be sure, but it's a true story nonetheless. Someday you are going to work with aliens."

"Of course I am," Jack says sarcastically.

"And one of them will abduct you and make a clone, and then that clone…"

"So that's Charlie. You're tell me that the only way I'm going to have a kid is I'm cloned by aliens? That's going to kill Sara."

"I'm that clone. But I have all of your memories. The memories you have when you are fifty years old, anyway. And I traveled back in time."

"Why?"

"It's a long story. But right now I need someone to pretend to be my dad. I figure, what better person to do that than the one I was cloned from. I mean, you pretty much are my dad. In exchange, I'll tell you how to keep your son alive. Because I know that you are going to have a son. And if you don't do anything to prevent it, he is going to die."

"If you really knew how to save a kid that right now is more yours than mine, you would do it without any conditions."

"You know what, you're right, lock up your freaking guns, man," Jon says firmly.

Jack's face dissolves for a long second.

"Now, I have a little girl right now. Because the same asshole alien that made me also took your sperm and put it in a teenage girl. And if you don't pretend to be a father who's disappointed in his son for knocking up the General's daughter, there is a very good chance that I could lose her. I know this sucks that I'm asking you to do this for a kid you want. But Charlie turned negative one yesterday, so you don't have to wait much longer."

Jack shakes his head, "If you didn't look just like me, I'd kick you out and call you a crack addict. When do you need me?"

"Can you get away tomorrow night? And don't tell Sara."

"I won't," he says, surprised that he would suggest such a thing.


	6. Chapter 6

Wiggiesmom is correct, Jack is not old enough to be his own father. Opps, I made a cheep fix in this first paragraph.

Jack looks into his rearview mirror at the make-up job that aged him by a few decades. He swore his talent for stage make-up would never have another use after that really strange black ops mission.

Jacob opens up the door, and stares at the man in front of him. There is no doubt who this man is… he looks just like his son.

"Jacob Carter," he says, extending his hand.

"Jack O'Neill," the man replies.

"Come on in," Jacob says, returning to the kitchen, "You like steak, right?"

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Jack replies flippantly.

Jon looks up from where he is cooking them food.

"Say hi to your dad," Jacob prompts.

Jon tries to figure out a way to display that Jack needs to start being cruel to him without making it obvious enough that Jacob notices. "I don't know if I want to say hi, after the way he treated me."

"Look, kid, I showed up, didn't I? More than I can say for your mother," Jack grumbles.

Yep, black ops and improv do have a few things in common.

Sam walks into the room.

Jack looks at her, asking permission or forgiveness with his eyes. He isn't sure how much she is on it. She smiles at him in a way that lets him know she's confused by his relationship. That's enough to let him know she knows he isn't her boyfriend's father.

"Hey, slut."

Jacob Carter slams across the table in order to slap him soundly across the face. "You can say what you want to your own son. But you are going to treat MY daughter with respect."

Jack glares at him, but those who know it's only acting detect a little smile in the corner of his face. He likes Jacob. A lot.

"I don't have a son," Jack says, and the sadness is so true and honest. Jon remembers feeling that gloom. He wishes that he could comfort him right now. He will have a son soon, and he hopes that Jack believes it.

Jacob stares at him, "Not only do you have a son, but you also have a granddaughter. And you if aren't smart enough to see that, I feel sorry for you."

"I can't believe you're letting your daughter shack up with my son."

"I can't believe you kicked your own flesh and blood out. And they aren't shacked up. I laid down the ground rules."

Jack snorts, "Right, you let me know how well that works out for you. They've already demonstrated a complete lack of self-control."

"And I wonder where he got that from? Because you seem to have great control of your tongue. You son is manning up. You're going to regret it if you don't get involved in his life."

"I regret him already," Jack says, spinning out of the house.

As soon as he is out of sight, Jacob pulls Jon into a hug. Jon is used to Tok'Ra kind of hugs with this man. This isn't one of these. This is the kind of hug that only families share. He can't believe that Jacob is accepting him like this. He didn't expect it. He sort of thought that Jacob was going to kill him.

-0-0-0-

"Sammy, you're going to be late for school," Jacob warns.

"Dad? What are you still doing here?" Sam asks.

"I… ah…c hanged my hours around a little bit at work."

"What?" she asks, coming out of her bedroom to stare at him.

"Honey, I'm going to be working less," he says.

She stares at him. It's what she's wanted for so long. But she doesn't want him to have to give up anything for her. "Daddy, you don't have to do that."

He swallow hard, "Honey, I do. I should have done this a long time ago. After your mother died," he pauses, swallowing hard, "After your mother died," he repeats, "I buried myself in the work, because when I'm on a mission, when I'm commanding hundreds of men, I don't have time to grieve. I was running away. And that was cowardly. I'm sorry."

"Daddy," Sammy says, holding him close.

"You've got to get ready for school, honey," he tells her.

"I can't go to school today," she says.

"Sick again? You've got to try, because you're going to miss a lot of school when the baby comes."

"I'm not sick, I just can't go…" she mutters. She looks up, and his eyes are completely understanding. More understanding than she deserves. "I saw Liz at the mall. Everyone is going to know I'm pregnant. I mean, they probably do already, but if I don't go to school I don't have to hear about them knowing."

Jacob sighs, "Honey, I don't know how to protect you from this. If you tell me how to keep this from happening to you, I will do it."

"How about you don't make me go to school for the next four months?" she says.

"That, my dear, is not an option," he says.

"I know," she says softly.

"I love you," he tells her.

"Thanks," she mutters.

-0-0-0-

The hours between 3:15 when Sam got out of school, and 5:00 when Jon got off work were some of the longest that he had ever endured. Actually, the only ones that topped them were times he'd spent buddies in the infirmary and the time in the hospital with Charlie.

He knew what she would be facing, and he knew that she didn't deserve it. It was so unfair. She was completely and totally innocent.

He rushes home, and finds Samantha exactly as he expected her to. She's folded in her bed, sobbing uncontrollably. But there is something he didn't expect, too. Mark has his arm around her, and he's singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,' to her. Or at least that's what the melody is. Jon's never actually heard the words before; it must be another verse.

"Tough day, Sammy?" he asks her.

She looks at him with her chin shaking, but no tears coming out.

"Look, you made it through today. The worst is over," he assures her.

"Take me away," she pleads, sitting up. "Take me to the place where you come from," she says cryptically, grabbing onto his arm and begging him.

"I can't do that, Sam," he says, shaking his head.

"I don't care what the rules are!" she exclaims.

"It's not about that. I don't have transportation," he tells her.

Her eyes grow wide grow wide as she understands what he means.

"Don't leave, Sam, I promise I'm going to stop drinking. I understand that you don't want your kid around me, but I swear I'm going to change."

"Mark, this isn't your fault," she mutters, "Although, I'm really grateful that you decided to come home tonight instead of going out and drinking."

"I really can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming home and taking care of her, Mark, thank you," Jon says with a smile.

"So why do you want to leave?" Mark asked, confused.

She lays back on the bed, "I guess I don't really want to."

"What did they do to you at school?" Jon asks, sitting down on the edge of her bed. It feels strange to him to be sitting on Carter's bed. He's been over to her house lots of times, but he's never been in her bedroom. He's slept next to her on plenty of missions, but it's never quite been like this. There is nothing quite a personal as sitting next to someone on their bed. It's something that he would never do if Mark wasn't in the room with him.

"I shouldn't be such a baby about it," she says apologetically, "Just like mom always used to say, 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me'."

"Sam, don't get your life advice from clichés," he advices, "When jerks say things about you, it hurts. It often hurts more than physical pain. Now, give me the names of the ones that were the worse."

"No!" she exclaims.

"Come on, why not?" he asks.

"I'll help you," Mark says cheerfully. Jon nods. He could use a wingman if he's going to go up against more than one of them at a time. Mark is sort of small for his age, and he hasn't had any training, but Jon figures he can't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Jon, you cannot go beat up a bunch of kids who teased me," Sam says.

"I'm not planning on beating them up," Jon says.

"What are you planning on doing then?" she asks.

"Giving them a good talking-to," he replies.

"In other words, threatening them?" she asks.

"If you want to call them that."

"That doesn't sound a whole lot better," she says.

"Sara once told me that women don't want men to come up with answers to their problems. They just want people to listen to them and sympathize with him," he says.

"Yeah," Sam says with a smile.

"Who's Sara?" Mark asks.

The lie is obvious, but it's also strange, and he almost chokes on it. "She's my mother."

"Why do you call them by their first names?" Mark asks.

He chokes on this answer even more. He is supposed to hate his parents. He's supposed to be furious at them. But Sara is a good woman, and he hates to say this about her, "Some people don't deserve the title of mom."

He closes his eyes around the lie. He asks the universe for forgiveness. Sara deserves to be a mother, and this time hopefully she'll get to bear the title for more than a decade.

Mark mistakes the pain over having to have said the words for pain over whatever his mother did to him. "Sorry, man," Mark says, giving him a hug.

"Hi, where are you guys?" Jacob says as he enters the house.

Mark and Sam look at one another in shock. Their father never comes home this early. They seriously can't believe their ears. But Jon just says, "We're in Sam's room."

"Oh, no, you're not!" Jacob shouts. "Get the hell out of Sam's room!" he says as he runs down the hallway. He enters the room, and sees Mark sitting on the bed next to his sister.

"You're home," Jacob says in shock.

"So are you, Dad," Mark replies.

Jacob grins, "Did the hoodlums behave themselves?"

"Yeah, I'm a good chaperone."

"Hey, Jon, I never asked you how your first day of work went," Sam says.

"It was great," Jon says. "And on my lunch break I registered for a correspondence college class," he adds with a smile.

"You're kidding," Sam says, "I thought you said we weren't going to talk about college until later."

"Yeah, well, your dad was kind of pushing it," he says, looking up at Jacob.

It almost takes Jacob's breath away. Someone is actually taking his advice. He's used to this at work, of course. Airmen are always falling over themselves to do whatever they think the General wants. And he knows that this is actually the same kind of thing. Jon is trying to impress the father of the girl that he knocked up.

But it's real parenting. Not actually parenting one of his kids, but parenting none the less. Maybe he can do this.

"Wonderful, I'm proud of you," he says to Jon, "What are you planning on studying?"

"I actually haven't decided yet. The way it works, they send you one class at a time. I have to do my generals before I get into anything else. It's actually self-paced, which is nice."

"That is," Jacob says giving him another grin. He turns to his daughter, "And what are we going to do about your schooling?"

"I'm going to graduate from high school," she says.

"Damn right you are!" Jacob and Jon say in unison. They shoot one another a look of appreciation, and Sam actually feels a little bit left out.

"I mean, the Academy. You can't go to the Academy if you have dependent children," Jacob says.

"I don't have to go the Academy," Sam says.

"You are smart enough to go the Academy. You deserve to go to the Academy," Jacob insists.

"ROTC has some really great options," Jon says.

"But not the best options," Jacob says.

"I don't think I want to be in the Air Force," Sam says.

All three of her boys turn to her and say, "What?"

"I don't know if I want to do the whole Air Force thing," she repeats with her shrug of her shoulders.

"Sammy, you've always wanted to be an astronaut," her dad says.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure you've always wanted me to be one," she says.

For a second Jacob looks like she's just slapped him in the face, but the man recovers pretty fast. "Sammy," he says softly, "If that's not what you want, I'm fine with it. You can be whatever you want. But going into the stars… that really was your dream. If it isn't anymore, that's fine. We'll find a new dream. But you're not allowed to stop dreaming just because you're having a baby."

Sam bursts into tears and Jacob and Jon have a conversation with their eyes trying to figure out which one should give her a hug. Jon wins, or loses, depending on how you think about it, and goes forward to pull the child who would become his second-in-command into a tight embrace.

"I can't do that to her," Sam sobs.

"Who?" Jon asks.

"My daughter, I can't go into the Air Force. I know what it is like to lose a mother. My daughter is not going to feel that," she says.

"Honey, your mother didn't die in the Air Force. I'm the one in the Air Force, and I'm still here," Jacob points out.

"I know how Mom died," Sam says with bitterness that she hasn't shown her father in many years.

"My point is, life is dangerous, and none of us make it out of here alive. There is no way that you could ever be completely and totally sure that you're not going to die. That doesn't mean that you stop living," Jacob says. They sound like the sort of thing his wife would have said. Maybe he can do this. Maybe he can be a single father to teenagers. Maybe he isn't a failure.

"My daughter needs me around, a lot," Sam mutters, pulling away from Jon, and using her sleeves to wipe the tears off her face.

Jacob feels like something has just stabbed him in the heart. But Sam didn't mean it like that. This is where the bitterness should come in. This is where the condemnation should come from. But she's calm, and she's quite, and she isn't even angry.

"Sam, a lot of people in the Air Force get off work before I do. I know I haven't been there for you, I should have been there for you. But please don't let my bad decisions lead to you missing out," Jacob says.

"You could be a workaholic in any field. And in any field, you could not be one," Jon points out.

"But most jobs don't have the chance to ship me overseas so I miss a huge hunk of my kid's life," she says.

Jon nods, "That's fair, you've got a while before you make this call, so think about it."

"Sammy, I'm going to be proud of you no matter what you grow up to be," Jacob says, making her grin. His next word makes her hear sink, "But…"

"…But you want me to join the Air Force!" she shouts.

He shakes his head, "That wasn't what I was going to say. I was going to say, 'But I don't want you making a decision like this based on fear'. You don't not do something because of fear… ever. You choice not to do it either because it's wrong, or because it doesn't make you happy. Those are the only reasons, ok?"

"Ok," she says.

He gives her a hug and absently says, "That's my little…" he stops, because 'astronaut' is the word he used to use when she was tiny, "Sammy," he provides instead.


	7. Chapter 7

"Are you still studying?" Jon whines, bouncing on Sam's bed.

"You're not supposed to be in my room unless someone else is in here," Sam reminds him, not even looking up.

"Yeah, well, you're supposed to do something besides studying at least once a millennium," he complains with a lip stuck out in an exaggerated pout.

"Jonathan, I swear, sometimes it's hard to believe you're older than me," she complains.

He grins, "Are you writing another essay? You had one due yesterday! Your teacher is worse than a drill sergeant!" he exclaims.

"Different teacher," she mutters.

"You're taking TWO English classes? Are you kidding me?" he says.

"Yeah, well, I WAS taking one. I registered for a second one just the other day."

"Let me get this straight, you're telling me that you found out you're five months pregnant, and you decided that this would be a good time to pick up more classes?" he asks, confused.

"I've took a couple of high school classes when I was in junior high. I never took an off hour or a slacker class. I easily could have graduated early, I just didn't have a reason to. I thought I was going to the Academy, and I needed to be 18 for that. And Dad was against graduating early, really against it. He could never stand the thought of me skipping a grade. He was worried that I would miss out on important experiences if I skipped a grade."

"But now you want to graduate early," he says, "You do realize that you are going to be uncomfortable and sick and… larger," he says.

"You mean fat, and I am already these things. It's only one class, Jon."

"Ok, but you're going to be having a baby soon," Jon reminds her.

"Yeah, but by my calculations the baby should come after school gets done," she looks at him with alarm, "She's not coming early, is she?"

Jon shakes his head, "She came two weeks into the summer, but you never know, things could be different."

"Well, if she does come early, I bet they'll let me make up the work later. Besides, this new class is work at your own pace. I plan on getting it done a long time before the baby comes."

"So what are your plans for next fall?" Jon asks.

"I still don't have a clue," Sam admits.

"Well, I don't mean to put pressure on you, honey, but I think you are going to have to figure it out soon. You're going to have to get applications in pretty soon."

"I know, I registered for the next SAT," she says with a sigh, "I did really well on the practice one, so I'm not too worried about it. It's just a lot of things going on."

"You'll do great, you're a genius," he encourages.

"I'm also thinking of taking a semester off," she says.

He looks at her in surprise.

She seems offended by that, and rushes to defend her position, "I'll still be a semester ahead of where I would be if I didn't graduate early. And plenty of people lake a little time off to be with their kid, it's not..."

"Sam," he says putting up his hand to stop her, "I think it's a good idea. I was just surprised. I mean, I never thought you would be the kind of person that would want to be a stay-at-home mom, even for a little bit. But if you want to do it, you can do it. If you wanted to do it more long-term, we could swing that as well."

"I just feel guilty," Sam mutters.

"Well, that's not a good reason to decide to stay home. You can't do it because you feel guilty about the way that this child came into the world."

She laughs lightly, "That's not what I feel guilty about. I feel guilty about not following the same path she did."

Jon looks at her. "Sammy, the choice is yours. You can be her, or you can be someone else. The time line isn't sacred. If I thought it was, there is no way I would have come here."

"That's not it either," she says thoughtfully, "It's more about who she is. She saves the world on a regular basis. I don't know… sometimes I'm almost jealous of her."

"You get that she is you, right?"

She giggles, "Yeah, I do. And sometimes I think I'm going to do the same things she did, mostly. You know, I'll go to ROTC instead of the Academy, and then I would go save the world. But when I think of that I think of that little baby, and I feel like I can't leave her. But if I don't… What if me playing mommy destroys the world?"

He moves off the bed, and kneels before her, "Samantha, you are one of the most amazing people in the world. You do amazing things. But you are NOT the only one that can do them. I know the other people who can do them. They're annoying, and they are maybe not quite as good, but they'll do. If you go the other way, have a job, this kid will be fine. See, I am still out there. I have no intention of saving the world this time around. I can take care of this kid. You can go to work and come home to her at the end of the day."

She smiles at him.

"You know, I think they really could use someone to do a kind of science job at the SGC. No going off world. There are a lot of options here, and if you don't find an option you like we can always make them up."

She smiles. "You know, we should probably get out of my bedroom before Mark or Dad comes home and catches us," she says.

"Right," he says, standing up from the floor.

She giggles at him.

"What?" he asks.

"It's just… you move like an old man. Like your knees are bad."

He looks down at his own knees, and knows that she is right, "I guess it's hard to break a habit of many years. I am still thinking of myself as an old man in many ways, even though this body is really just a kid."

She looks at him for a little bit, "Did you ever think about having more kids?" she asks.

"No, I really didn't. I thought I was done after Charlie."

She squirms, "That's not what I meant. I guess, I was asking if you were thinking of having more kids after Jane?"

He looks at her, surprised. In his wildest dreams he never imagined that this time travel might result in more children. "I hadn't thought about it," he says honestly.

"Well, it was just a stupid idea, forget that I even mentioned it," she mutters really quickly.

He catches her by the elbow, "I never thought about it, but that doesn't mean that I don't like the idea."

"Do you like the idea?" she asks tentatively.

"I like that idea a lot," he says.

"You know the local college has an ROTC program?" she asks.

"I did," he grins.

"Are you willing to live at my Dad's house for the next four and a half years?" she asks nervously.

"Yeah, as long as Jacob is ok with it. It's nice to have family around. I am going to pay rent, and pay for any and everything that is even remotely baby-related."

"By the time we move out, she isn't going to be a baby anymore," Sam points out.

"Yes, which means she'll get lots of extended family in her life," Jon says encouragingly.

"Maybe, while I'm at school… I'll take another semester off and have a baby," she says, looking at him nervously.

"Ok, but only if we're married by then," he says firmly, "A baby out of wedlock accidently because of alien influence is different than one on purpose by natural means."

"About marriage," Sam says blushing.

"Are you saying yes?" he asks with a smile.

"I'm willing to talk about it, I don't think I could really say yes unless Dad approved. What do you think he thinks about it?" she asks worriedly.

"I don't know, I could ask him," Jon says.

She nods her head.

"I like your hair, by the way," he says, fiddling with it.

"Of course, it's her hair," Sam says.

"No, she has it short."

"Regulations," Sam says.

"It's nicer this way," he says, grinning at her.

-0-0-0-

"Do you have a minute to talk, Jacob?" Jon asks tentatively, as he comes in on Jacob cooking. Jacob has come home on time every night this week. Jon is almost unnerved by his punctuality.

"Sure," Jacob says, sitting down.

Jon however, doesn't take a chair, instead he starts pacing.

"What's going on?" Jacob asks with concern. He wonders if Jon is planning on leaving. He knows that would destroy his daughter, and he can't imagine what he would do to this man if he tries it.

"What do you think about marriage?" Jon bursts out.

"As a general principle? It's the foundation of our society. It's an important lifelong commitment. Not to be entered into lightly."

"Specifically, Sam and I getting married," Jon prompts.

Jacob is silent for a long time. "Why?"

"Why?" Jon asks confused.

"Yes, why do you want to marry my daughter?" Jacob prompts.

"Well," he knows the response he's going to have to give if there is any hope of success. There is no way Jacob is going to agree to it if he doesn't believe that Jon loves his daughter. But, Jon isn't ready to declare that. It's true that he had feelings for Carter. Strong feelings. Feelings which probably would have turned into love if Jack had ever done anything about them. And, despite the feeling that it was WRONG for him to feel anything for this child that was his second-in-command, he was developing quite a few feelings for Samantha as well. He just wasn't quite willing to call them love yet. "I want her to know this is forever."

"You could tell her that," Jacob says.

"Right, but it wouldn't have quite the same meaning as a ring," Jon says.

"Are you trying to spare her from embarrassment?" Jacob asks.

"That's part of it," Jon confesses.

"Well, that's a really bad plan, because there is no one so bad at math that they won't be able to piece together a birth after a few months of marriage and figure out that the conception happened before marriage."

"Sir, the fact is, marriage IS going to spare her a lot of gossip. Even a shotgun wedding is better than no wedding at all. And it's not like it would change anything between us."

"It wouldn't change anything between you?" Jacob says in disbelief, "Son, marriage changes everything. For the rest of your life you are going to have to think about her wants and needs more than you think about your own. You are going to be half a person for the rest of your life." Jacob pauses, embarrassed. He's said more than he meant to. But it's true, he does feel like half a person since his wife died. He's like an amputee learning to walk without a leg. And now that he's been stumbling trying to walk, his daughter's crisis is forcing him to learn to run.

"I'm going to be a father," Jon points out, "That's a much bigger life change than husband."

Jacob stares at him for a long time, "I'm having trouble giving you my blessing to have sex with my daughter."

Jon blushes despite himself. He never used to blush this much when he was fully grown. "That's not what I'm asking for."

"So, you're telling me that you want to marry my daughter, but not have sex with her?" Jacob asks incredulously.

"No, or at least not for a few years."

Jacob stares at him for a while, "Then it's not really a marriage. Only a mostly-marriage, or an almost-marriage. When my daughter gets married, she deserves everything. And," he says, narrowing his eyes, "She deserves to get married because some guy is unbelievably over the moon with her. She deserves something more than duty."

"I feel more for her than duty," Jon argues.

"I suppose you do. But you don't feel as much as you should before you marry someone. And you don't feel what you should before you have a baby with someone."

"You're probably right, sir, sorry to bother you," Jon says, moving away.

"If you want, you can tell her I said no because she was too young," Jacob says.

Jon smiles at him, "That might be easier, for now."

"It's a deal, just so long as you promise to remember that I have not given you my permission to sleep with my daughter."

"Understood," Jon replies.

-0-0-0-

"Dad, I have a crazy request to make," Sam says nervously.

"What?" he asks invitingly. He still feels pretty bad about the fact that she didn't feel comfortable asking for money for girl things. He wonders what else she hasn't felt comfortable asking him for.

"I… I want to take a birthing class. You're supposed to have a partner. I mean, I should ask Jon. But they're going to be talking about all kinds of… I just don't want him there," she says bashfully, focusing on her feet, "Will you go with me?"

"If that's what you want," he tells her.

"Thanks," she says.

-0-0-0-

Damn, Jack thinks as he hears the clumsy attempt to get a key in the door. He'd figured that Mark was drunk again when he wasn't home by 11 o'clock when Jon had finally got to sleep. He was really hoping that he was wrong though.

He meets the drunk teenager in the entryway. "Don't tell Sammy," Mark says, alarmed.

The boy is far from sober, but he isn't nearly as far gone as he was the first time that Jack saw him. "Was this a slip on the step to sobriety, or are you done trying?" he asks.

"Just a slip. I just saw some old friends, and they offered me a beer, and…" Mark stammers.

"You had more than one," Jon demands.

"Yeah," Mark mutters.

"Look, you need to start going to meetings," Jon says.

"I can't do that, I'm the General's son. I can't admit I drink."

"They know it, and you need help," Jon says.

"You can't tell me what to do, you're not my dad," Mark says.

"But I am," Jacob says, standing at his doorway, "You are either going to meetings or I will put you in rehab."

"Why do you care all of a sudden?" Mark says, "I'm trying to get clean."

"I care because you're my son," Jacob says, "I love you, kid. I just… I didn't know how to help you. You won't talk to me. And after your mother died… I could barely breathe. I failed you. I screwed up. But that's done. I'm going to be the dad now. So make your choice."

Mark just stares at him.

"Go ahead and go to bed," Jacob tells him, "We can talk about it in the morning."


	8. Chapter 8

Lynn-I couldn't reply to you privately, so I'll have to do it here. After "Are you My Mommy" Jon goes back in time changing the time line to the AU time line you see in this story. So things won't turn out like in "Are you My Mommy" because the events in that story led to the changes you see in this one. Jack and Sam will not be together in this story. You'll have to wait for the rest.

**One month later…**

"What's this?" Jon asks, pulling something out of Sam's backpack.

"I don't know," Sam says, shrugging, "I guess it is an advertisement for prom or something. They were handing them out when I left the school. I just sort of grabbed it, I didn't want to insult anyone."

"Your prom is THIS weekend?" he asks in shock.

She nods.

"Well, you could give a guy a little warning!" he exclaims.

"What would I have to warn you about?" she asks, sounding genuinely confused.

"Well, I only have a couple of days to find a tux," he says.

"You think you're taking me?" she asks.

"You're going to prom with someone else?" he asks, and she is both surprised and delighted by the tone of jealousy that she detects in his voice.

"I'm not going to prom with anyone," she informs him.

"Why not?"

"Seriously? Because I look like a basketball."

"No, you're beautiful," he tells her.

"I'm not going to let them laugh at me."

"Ok well, if they laugh at you, I'll punch them in the face. Problem solved."

"I see, so you'd be coming along as a chaperone," she says bitterly.

"Of course not," he says confused.

"Then what are you coming with me as?" she asks.

"I don't know," he says.

"So it's not romantic?" she asks.

"Sure it is," he says.

"Really?" she asks, turning away from him, and trying to fight tears, "Because I was pretty sure that we were just two people raising a kid together."

"What are you talking about?"

Sam takes a long breath and then looks directly at Jon, "You've been here a month. And the only time you've touched me is when you're feeling your child move, or when you're giving me a massage, because I asked you too. You don't talk to be about anything besides this baby or school work or my family. You spend more time helping Mark with his homework or driving him to AA than you do with me."

"So you're jealous of Mark?" he says.

She throws up her hands in an exaggerated motion of surrender as she turns to leave the room.

"Just explain to me," he says catching her by the arm.

She stares at him for a long time before she says slowly, "Are you ever going to be able to look at me without seeing her?"

"I don't ever see her when I look at you," he says honestly.

"Maybe that is even worse," she says sadly. "I just… No little girl dreams of growing up to raise her kid with some guy who will never love her."

"You really think that?" he asks shocked.

"Well, you made it pretty obvious," she insists.

"Oh my dear, dear Samantha, you are the dumbest genius I have ever met."

She glares at him.

"You're right. I haven't been spending much time with you, and that wasn't fair. Especially to you. You deserve a chance to get to know the father of your kid. But you're very wrong about the reason that I was avoiding you."

"So what is it?" she asks him.

"You're young."

"Yeah, I think that's what I said," she says, pouting.

"No, I mean, I shouldn't have feelings for someone as young as you. It's gross. Samantha, I'm creepy old man, and you deserve better than a creepy old man."

"I don't believe you," she says, "And what you _do_ like about me is just her."

Jon smiles, "I love your long hair. Hers is short. It looks good, but it's certainly not as beautiful as your hair. And the way you smile. It's sad, heartbreaking even, because there is so much grief in it. But it's honest, and she hasn't had an honest smile in years. And I love the way you're still willing to play with stuff. Yeah, you still have the workaholic streak in you. But there is just a touch of whimsy lurking under the surface. But the think I like best about you is that fact that you're not a cynical as she is. You still trust people."

She stares at him in silence for a minute.

"Of course, that probably wouldn't last long. I'm destroying a lot of your trust right now. This time, instead of it being Jonas Hansen, it's Jonathan O'Neill that makes you hate men."

"You're not destroying anything," she says, reaching up to touch his face lightly. She likes the feel of his tiny whiskers on her fingers. "But there is one big problem with you liking me better than her."

"Yeah, like the fact that there is now a million year age difference? He was already too old for her."

Sam smiles, "No, it means that you are going to love me less as I become her."

"You know," he says softly, "I don't think you are in any danger of becoming her. It's strange… I've started to grieve the loss of an amazing person at the same time that I am rejoicing in the blooming of a new one."

She flushes.

"So are you going to let me take you to prom?" he asks.

"I am still going to be looking like a beach ball with legs," she says.

"Ah, but what legs they are," he says with a smile. "Seriously, Sam, you are going to regret it if you don't go to your prom."

"I don't have a dress," she mutters.

"Well, we can go to the mall."

"But I have to find a maternity dress that actually looks like a prom dress."

"Challenge accepted," he says, "Grab your coat."

She does it, and smiles as she walks next to him. Then a worry pops into her mind, "You're sure that you're not just saying all of this to make me feel better and save the damsel in distress?"

"Sam, I barely talk about my feelings. Pretending to have feelings that I don't have is just a little bit beyond me."

-0-0-0-

"You look beautiful," Jon says as he comes down the stairs.

"I can't go," she says, plopping on the couch.

"Are you sick?" Jacob asks in concern.

She shakes her head, "Just fat and ugly," she whispers.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Jon teases.

"Yes," she says, trying to cross her arms over her belly. They slip off, because of her stomach.

"Come on now, I've been brushing up on my dance skills," Jon says standing up, and doing an exaggerated disco dance.

Sam giggles, "If you are going to dance like that I am _definitely _not going."

"Sam, do you want your daughter to find out someday that you didn't go to prom because of her? Come on now, let's prevent the guilt trip," he says helping to heave her to her feet.

"Ok, fine."

"Pictures!" Jacob says, grabbing her camera.

"From the neck up only!" Sam warns.

"But then no-one can see your dress," Jon protests.

"I don't care," she mutters.

"Yeah, well someday your daughter will want to see pictures of when you were inside of her belly. What better pictures to show her than ones where you were all dressed up for prom?"

"Fine," she mutters.

"Ok, you guys have fun. But not too much fun," Jacob warns.

-0-0-0-

"You can actually dance," Sam says in surprise as he moves her effortlessly around the dance floor. He does just the right amount of leading and letting her led. Well, not the right amount if you were a dance instructor or something. But the right amount if you are a bit of a feminist like Sam.

"You sound surprised," he says sounding insulted.

"Well, the dancing you did in my living room wasn't exactly pointing to charming and sophisticated."

He giggles pulling her a little closer.

"And it's pretty amazing that you can do any kind of dancing with this huge stomach between us."

"She's not between us, Sam, she's with us," he corrects.

He pulls back, and smiles at her. He takes a tendril of her curled hair. He twists it between his fingers. She tries not to flinch at the distinct possibility that he's ruining the hairdo that she spent hours on.

"Are you sorry about her?" Jon asks softly.

"I should be," she says equally softly.

He pulls her into a deeper hug. She leans forward and rests her head on his shoulder. She feels safe and secure.

-0-0-0-

Sam is beyond exhausted. She's been getting nine or more hours of sleep a day ever since she got pregnant, and it's past her bedtime. Besides, she's never been on her feet this long, perhaps ever.

"You want to sit down?" he says.

She shakes her head onto his chest. He pulls her tighter to himself, and leans her against him, so she's barely standing by herself.

"Thanks," she mutters.

"No problem," he whispers back. Suddenly, he feels a kick at his own stomach. He wonders if this is what it felt like to be a pregnant woman.

"Three people are dancing," he says.

"Usually, two people figure out who they are before adding a third. We never had a chance to do that."

"No, but life is more complicated than that. We've got to find our place among your family. We're going to be fine."

"Jon, will there ever be an 'us' besides the family?" she asks, looking at him.

"Sure," he says slowly, "There already is."

Her hand sneaks up, and tangles her fingers in the short hairs at the back of his neck. He pulls back and looks into her eyes. He touches her chin quickly with a finger. Then he moves in for a kiss. It's short and chaste, but romantic.

He pulls back, and searches her face again. She has a huge grin, and it spreads to his face.

Then her face instantly changed. "Oh crap!"

His stomach churns. He's used to being the one to screw up relationships. However, this is the fastest that he's ever screwed something up.

"What's wrong?"

"I promised Dad that I'd talk to him before we kissed."

"He'll understand," Jon assures her.

"My first kiss," she whispers so no-one else can hear.

He tangles his hand in her hair, and pulls her back to his chest. "Worth it?" he asks insecurely.

"No regrets," she says.

-0-0-0-

"You're finally up," Jacob says the next morning as Sam comes out into the kitchen. "How was last night?"

She blushes, "Daddy, I know I said I was going to talk to you before I did anything but…"

He shakes his head. "Well, honey, I'm disappointed that this happened. I think we need to talk about Jon getting his own place. You guys don't have the self-control to live under one roof."

"Dad, we kissed."

"Just on your mouth?" he asks.

"Jeez, dad!" she exclaims.

"Sorry," he says.

She looks at him, "I know it's going to be hard to trust me. But I am really not intending on doing anything with Jon unless we end up married. I wouldn't… I wouldn't want to disappoint you again."

Jacob looks at her for a long moment, and then he takes her into a hug. He pulls her away and holds her at arms' length, "Honey, I love you no matter what. You know that right? Even if you don't do what I want, I am going to love you just as much. I'm giving you advice. That's about all I can do at this point, especially since you're going to be a mother soon. But you're not a disappointment. I am so proud of you."

She smiles.

"So, you had a good prom?" he asks.

"Very good. Jon is a good dancer. And I'm pretty sure that Jane was dancing for part of it as well."


	9. Chapter 9

**Two months later…**

It's Sam's favorite day of the week. Wednesdays are Jon's day off work. Now that the baby's due date is only a few weeks away, he's switched to the night shift. She doesn't get to see him as much as she used to.

She comes home from school to see all of Jon's stuff in the hallway. It's not actually that much stuff, but she knows it's everything he owns.

"What's going on?" she asks.

"Just doing a little moving," he says.

Her heart stops, "Moving?"

"Yep," he says absently, dropping off the load that is in his arms and going back for another one.

"And when exactly were you planning on telling me?" she asks angrily as she follows him.

"I don't know, it just sort of happened, and I figured you'd figure it out when you saw it."

"That's great, are we going to talk about where the kid is staying and when, or am I just going to figure that out when I see it as well?" she asks bitterly.

"What are you talking about?" he asks, and she looks around the room that used to be Jon's. The walls were India green. The bed is gone, and in its place is a white crib with bedding of a slightly lighter shade of green. There is a changing table next to it, and it already has a package of diapers on its shelf. Across from the crib is a rocking chair next to a bookshelf.

"You're moving so the baby can have her own room? She'd be fine in a crib in my room," Sam assures him.

"Sam, Mark invited me to share a room with him," Jon says slowly.

"You're not moving?" she says in a stunned voice.

"Only into the next room," he says.

She starts to cry. "C'mere," he says, pulling her into a hug. "Sam, dear, you are stuck with me," he mutters into her hair.

"Ok, now we can talk about the fact that you set up the nursery without talking to me," Sam says.

"I just figured that I would save you the work," he says.

"It looks great, but I'm not sure that green is the color I would have picked."

"Jane likes green," he says.

"Right, I keep forgetting that you know our daughter, and I don't," she says sadly.

"I only met her for a couple of days. You and I, we're going to be raising her for the rest of our lives. In the end, those first couple of days with someone who is… not quite our daughter, that isn't going to matter," he assures her.

"Does she like these books?" Sam asks, touching the books on the bookshelf.

"No, actually, I, ah… brought those," he stammers.

"They were Charlie's," she says.

"Yeah," he admits, "I know that she can't know him, and I suppose that technically he isn't even her brother, but… I need her to have some kind of a connection to him."

Sam smiles at him.

"Listen, if you hate this, we can re-do it. We'll do it together."

"It's not even about hating it. It's my daughter's room, and I didn't help put it together. It's part of what a mother should do for her daughter."

"Sorry," he says. "I can take all of this back, and we can pick out new things together."

"That's ok," she says, "But I get to pick out all of her clothes for the first couple of months."

"Ok, just let me know when you want to do that, and I'll give you money and a ride."

"About that…"Jacob says softly.

Sam turns to him, "Am I grounded or something?" she asks, even though she can't actually think of anything that she did wrong. Besides, of course, getting pregnant by alien abduction.

"No, honey, I just thought I'd take you for a driving lesson. You've had your permit for months. I should have been taking you all ready."

"I don't know if right now would be the right time to do this," she says, pointing to her stomach.

"You're going to be a mother soon. It would be nice to be able to drive your kid places."

"I wouldn't put a newborn in a car for driving lessons, and I'm not going to learn to drive with her in my belly," Sam says.

"Ok, tell me when you're ready," Jon says.

**One month later…**

Sam wakes up curled up into the fetal position. Something more than a cramp is ripping through her body. Her body seems to be used to this pain, even though her mind isn't. She must have been feeling it for a time while she was sleeping.

Then she feels moisture. She pulls back the blanket, and wonders in panic how long she's been in labor.

"Dad," she says, knocking on his door.

"Sammy? Is the baby coming?" Jacob asks.

"Yeah," she gasps as she heads into the boys' room. It is easy to wake up Jon without waking up Mark. Jon goes from fast asleep to wide awake at the slightest provocation. "Baby?" he asks.

She tries to nod, but the thing she figures is a contraction wracks her body. He jumps up. And then ruins her efforts to let her brother sleep, "Mark, Sam's having the baby. Are you going to be fine if we go to the hospital?"

"Can I come?" he asks drowsily.

"Sure," Jon says.

Sam wants to argue, but she wants to save her energy, so she just walks out of the room so that the boys can change.

A few minutes later, they are all getting into the car. Jacob opens the driver's side door.

"Dad, you've got to be back here with me. You're my coach," she mutters softly.

"I know honey, but I'm going to drive, and still have time to couch later."

"I'm not sure we are going to have that much time," she says.

"Really?" Jacob asks with a note of panic.

"I'll drive. Mark, you're going to want to be in the front seat. Sam, you've probably got more time than you think you do," Jon says calmly.

Jacob slides into the seat next to her, and puts his arm around her. Sam starts to cry. "It's going to be ok," he says slowly, rubbing her taunt stomach.

"I'm such a wimp," she sobs.

Jon is about to argue with her, but Jacob cuts in, "Honey, you are not a wimp. This hurts, and if I were you I'd be crying right now to. Your Mom cried with you."

"She did?" Sam gasps.

"Yeah, but you know what? This baby is going to be here soon, and then you aren't going to care about the pain anymore."

"But Jon gets to have a baby without this pain," she whines.

Jacob hides a smile. "I know it, but that isn't his fault."

"No, stupid Loki," she mutters through clenched teeth as another contraction comes.

Jon glances back at her in horror.

"Loki? Who the hell is Loki?" Jacob asks, seeing that something is going on.

"I don't think you REALLY want to know the answer to that one, Jacob," Jon replies cryptically.

"Jonathan, I can't believe I never asked this question before. Sam _is_ having your baby, right?" Jacob asks, suddenly conceiving of a hundred strange possibilities, none of which are anywhere close to the strangeness of the truth.

"Of course," Jon says.

Jacob looks at his daughter for confirmation. She nods her head, "It's just a Norwegian myth, dad. About how Loki gave women pain in childbirth," she lies. She knows that her father knows nothing about myths so she can get away with it.

"Daddy, it feels like I need to push," she whines as the next contraction comes on.

"Honey, not yet. Ok? Don't push yet," Jacob says.

Jon was already pushing the speed limit, but now he's far beyond it.

"So help me, Jonathan, if I go through all of this pain to bring your baby into the world and then you crash and bring it out of the world, I'm going to hurt you. People have babies every day, and I'm not going to have this baby in the car, so drive safely," she pleads.

He slows down.

She begins to worry that she just lied about the baby being born in the car.

-0-0-0-

"Ok," the nurse says in an annoyingly calm voice, "I just want to see how far along you are." A second later she looks up at Sam, "You're fully dilated. We're going to move you into the labor room. Come with me, Daddy, you are going to scrub up," she says, looking at the teenage boy she figures is the father.

"No, he's not going to come with me," Sam pleads, "Daddy, I need my Daddy."

Jacob glances over at Jon to see how he is dealing with this. It's not good.

"Please," Sam begs, looking right at Jon.

"Go with her," Jon nods his head. "I'll be out in the waiting room smoking and pacing."

"That better be figurative language, kid," Jacob says as he follows his daughter's hospital bed out of the room.

-0-0-0-

Jacob tries to remind himself that he shouldn't be excited about this as he takes his tiny granddaughter into his arms. She was a mistake. But he doesn't care. She is the most beautiful little thing, and she is glad that he is in her life. Even though he isn't too pleased about how he got there.

"Do you want to go tell them in the waiting room or should I?" the nurses asks.

"Oh, I will," he says, "I don't suppose I could bring her out," he asks hopefully. The nurse shakes her head.

When he enters the waiting room, Jon's face suddenly turns to panic. "What happened?" he asks.

"Your daughter was born," Jacob tells him.

"Already?" he says.

"Yes," Jacob says with a grin.

"Quick labor."

"Yeah, my daughter is pretty lucky. Her mother had an eight-hour labor, and a twelve-hour one," Jacob says.

"And they're ok?" Jon asks.

"They're great," Jacob assures him, "She is so beautiful."

"Is Sam ok if I… am I going to get to see them soon?" Jon asks nervously.

"I'm sure, I'll come get you as soon as she's ready for you," Jacob assures him, before returning to his daughter.

-0-0-0-

"She's so much smaller than I expected," Sam murmurs, looking at the tiny baby in her arms.

"Newborns are unbelievably little," Jon says, entering the room.

She looks up at him with surprise.

"Your dad said it's ok. If you need more privacy before…" he stammers.

"Come in and met your daughter," she says, holding the baby out to him.

He picks her up and brings her close to his face so that he can experience that intoxicating new baby smell. Suddenly tears start pouring down his face. It reminds him of Charlie. This is not ok. He has to pull it together. This cannot be his reaction to holding his kid for the first time.

Jacob puts an arm around his shoulders. "It's overwhelming, isn't it?"

Ok, so tears were an appropriate reaction to holding a kid for the first time. But Sam looks up at him, worried.

"She is wonderful," he assures her, "These are… happy tears."


	10. Chapter 10

**A week later…**

Sara rips open the large envelope that came in the mail. Pictures of an adorable baby fall out. She flips it over to make sure that it is really addressed to her.

It's not exactly addressed to her. It's addressed to her husband. Who the hell is sending her husband pictures of a baby?

It's so far beyond cruel. The two of them have been trying to have a baby for years.

Wait, maybe that's what this is about. Maybe her husband getting information on adoption. He's probably trying to surprise her. It would be just like him, even though that is an insane idea. You don't surprise someone with a BABY.

She digs in the envelope in an effort to figure out exactly how far he's gotten in his plan. She pulls out a slip of paper.

"I just thought that you would want to see your granddaughter," the note says.

Sara stares at the note, unable to process it. Her husband had a kid? A kid old enough to have a baby? How was that even possible? How young was he when he had a kid?

And if he did have a kid with someone else, why didn't he have a kid with her?

She takes the pictures over to the chair, and looks through them carefully. It's a beautiful baby.

And if her husband was a grandpa, the father or mother had to be pretty young. Young enough that they might be willing to give their daughter over to her grandmother to be raised. Or at least her step-grandmother.

She flips the envelope over to see the return address.

-0-0-0-

"Jon," Sam says, looking out of the curtains in the living room. "Some woman is standing in the yard, staring at the house."

He jumps up to peak around the curtain with her. His heart stops when he sees who it is. "Sara," he whispers, finding himself grateful that neither Sam's father or brother is home right now.

"Are you ok if I invite her in?" he asks.

"Yeah, but how does she even know about us?" Sam asks.

"I don't know, maybe Jack cracked and told her."

"Did Jack even know when the baby was due?" she asks.

He shrugs his shoulders, "He probably could have guessed based on how big you were last time. Let's ask her some of these questions."

Jon opens up the door. Sara walks into the house, and looks from one to the other, "So who is it?" she asks softly.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Jonathan says.

She pulls a note and a picture out of her pocket. Jon and Sam lean forward so that they can get a better view. Jon sees his daughter's picture first. Sam sees her father's handwriting telling Jack that his granddaughter has been born.

"Jane's taking a nap, would you like to see her?" Sam offers.

Jon stares at her as if she was crazy, which she just might be.

"I'm sorry… I don't know… which one of you is Jack's kid?" she stammers.

"I am," Jon says.

Sara looks like she is about to fall, so Sam helps her sit down in a chair.

"I don't know, we've been married for five years, we've been trying to have a baby together for almost five years! And this whole time he had a son," she says staring at him.

"Well, it's not like he was really involved in my life," Jon mutters.

"How old are you?" she chokes out in shock.

"Fourteen," Jack lies. Sam stares at him in shock. They'd been going with the age of seventeen to make the fact that they were having a baby seem less shocking. But she realizes in an instant why he said it. He was trying to make her husband look better. Every year that he stole from his own age and gave to Jack a year older Jack had become a father.

"The entire time I knew him he had a kid. I just… all those times when I was bawling because I couldn't have a kid he never once thought to bring up the fact that he already had one!" she rants.

Jon clears his throat, "Well, getting to know me wasn't really an option." Sam looks at him and she can tell that one hell of a cover story is brewing in her mind.

But Sam has already figured out that there is no way that this is going to work out. There is no way that they can go on forever with separate complicated lies for each half of their family.

"Jon, she deserves to know the truth," Sam says.

Jon shakes his head softly.

"She deserves to know her stepchild," Sam presses.

Jon realizes for the first time that this is what this baby is to Sara. He never thought of that child had anything to do with Sara. He feels unbelievably selfish.

He looks at her, "Sara, you know that Jack does some crazy things with his job." She nods her head, "Well, one of those crazy things resulted in me. I'm Jack. I have all of his memories, and I have his body. Or at least the body that he had a couple of decades ago. And the same crazy classified stuff resulted in Sam having my baby without the two of us ever having sex."

Sara just stares at him.

"So, I'm not exactly his son. And Jane isn't exactly his granddaughter. But no one would understand this, or believe it unless I could tell them things that I couldn't tell them. So we made up a lie. Jack claimed to be my father. We didn't want to tell you, because we knew that the issue of children is pretty sensitive to you. But apparently her father sent him some photographs to guilt him for acting like a jerk to us."

"Jack acted like a jerk to you?" she asks worriedly.

"Only because we needed him to," Sam replies.

"Her dad needed to believe that Jack kicked me out of the house," Jon explains.

Sara is stunned enough that she can't completely process what he just said. She shakes her head, "No, we wouldn't kick you out of the house."

"I know that," Jon tells her. "We just wanted Sam's dad to think you did."

"We want children," Sara says, with a look far hungrier than Jon remembers her having.

"Well, you can't have mine!" Sam says, suddenly realizing where this conversation is going.

"You're so young," Sara protests. "There is no way you can take care of her. I'm just trying to give you a way where you won't have to."

"I want her," Sam says firmly.

"Sara, I'm your husband. Just oddly, a few years older than the one you have. You have to understand that I want my daughter too," Jack says softly.

Her eyes brim with tears, "I've waited YEARS, and when you finally do have a kid it's going to be with some… some… child! If you are really him, then you are…" she closes his eyes.

"I'm really him," Jon says softly, "And I'm really not. We weren't together when I left the future. We hadn't been for a long time. That was your choice, by the way. I'm not cheating on you by being here. And if you want him forever, he'll sure as hell take you." Jack doesn't notice the pain in Sam's eyes as he says these things.

"So, why does she leave him?" Sam asks with worry in her voice.

Jack sighs, "I don't suppose it will do any harm to tell you the answer to that question since I've already told it to him. You're pregnant; you don't know it yet, but you are. And when your son is nine years old, he shoots himself with Jack's gun. The marriage… it couldn't survive that."

Sara finds herself gasping for breath.

"Jon! You're going to just tell her like that!" Sam scolds as she moves in to rub Sara's back in a half hug.

"I really don't know any good way to say, 'I killed your son'," he responds.

She looks up at him with eyes full of dismay and pain, "You think you KILLED him?"

"Well, my negligence allowed him to die, at the very least," Jon responds.

"We… we won't let him die this time," she says firmly.

"I hope not," Jon says softly.

"So, I really have a son?" she asks, touching her stomach.

"Yeah, you found out a week from now," he says, smiling at the memory of Sara calling him at work ten times and refusing to leave a message with the secretary each time. She'd been so excited when she had finally got a hold of him that she could barely get the news out.

"I don't know why I'm believing this crazy story. Jack is into a lot of weird stuff, a lot of stuff he can't talk about. But none of it is this weird," she stammers.

"I guess you'll have more reason to believe me when you confirm that Charlie exists," Jon points out.

"Charlie? I let you name him after that crazy friend of yours?" she asks.

"Ah… not really. You named him Tyler. You gave me Charlie as a middle name. It was sort of a peace offering. But I started calling him Charlie, and everyone followed suit," Jon says with a grin.

"Yeah, that sounds like my husband," Sara says with a smile.

Jane starts to cry from the bedroom, and Sam moves to get her.

"Can I see her?" Sara asks, "She is kind of like my step-daughter after all."

Sam nods nervously. There is a part of her that is still terrified that Sara is going to take her baby away from her.

Sara scoops the baby up, and the baby looks intently into Sara's eyes. She seems to accept the woman as a part of her family instantly.

Tears start running down Sara's face, "I was kind of hoping you'd come home with me as a daughter," she tells the baby, "But I guess I can take you as a granddaughter instead. God! I am too young to be a grandmother. I never got the chance to be a mother first."

"You don't have to pretend to be her grandmother. You could just ignore the fact that we exist," he says.

"Does she really have enough grandparents that you can throw some away?" Sara asks.

Just then they all hear the door open. "Anyone home?" Jacob's voice calls out.

"We're in the baby's room," Jack calls back.

"Hey, how was your day?" Jacob asks, coming into the bedroom. He stops short, watching the woman hold the baby. Suddenly he fears that Sam might really be taking his advice. Maybe she is really going to give her daughter up for adoption. He couldn't live with the fact that she would do something like that on advice from him.

"Jacob, this is Sara," Jon says.

"Sara, as in your mother?" Jacob asks with raised eyebrows.

"Yes," Sara says, "Nice to meet you. I want to thank you for sending me those pictures. If it weren't for them, I might never have realized exactly how pigheaded and foolish I was being."

"I… I'm glad you came to meet your granddaughter. I suppose Jon will be moving back in with you now?" Jacob asks. He is surprised that he is almost as sad about this as he was about the possibility of his granddaughter leaving the house.

"I… I'm not sure that is best right now. Jack hasn't forgiven our son quite as much as I have." She feels really bad about lying. Jack is the more forgiving of the two of them. But she can tell that Jon really wants to stay at this house. She thinks the chances of him being able to stay would be better if Jacob thought there was no other option.

"Well, he's welcome to stay here as long as he needs to," Jacob says with relief.

"I really appreciate you taking care of him," she says with genuine appreciation.

"You're welcome to come over here. See your son. Get to know this little one," Jacob offers.

"I think I'll take you up on that," she says softly.

"Don't take this the wrong way," he says, "But you look way too young to be his mother."

"There is no need for flattery. I'm old enough, I can assure you," she says bashfully. She hopes that will prevent him from looking into the matter anymore.

-0-0-0-

A part of Sara really thought that it was a lie. She really thought these people were probably just crazy. But here is the proof. She smiles at the test in her hand. She really is having a baby.

She phones the office.

"Is Captain O'Neill there?" she asks.

"He's not in right now, can I take a message?" the secretary says politely.

"No, that's ok, I'll call back later."

-0-0-0-

"Sara?" Jack says. He has a bad feeling about the phone call. The last few weeks he has gotten the impression that Sara knows about Jonathan and Jane. Of course, he knows that this can't possibly be the case. If she really knew they existed, she would want to talk about it right away.

Or maybe she would just have him committed to a mental hospital.

"Jack," she says, sounding completely surprised.

"How can you possibly not expect this? You called my office, like, a million times."

She giggles, "I'm sorry, Jack, it's just I have some big news."

"Yeah," he says, getting excited from the excitement in her voice.

"It has to do with a baby," she giggles.

Now he's pretty confused. How on Earth can she be excited about this, "I can explain?"

"Are you trying to explain Jane?"

"Yeah," he hedges, glad to know that she actually does know about Jane.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you couldn't actually explain Jane. But that's not the baby that I am talking about."

"What other baby is there?" he asks.

"Our baby," she tells him.

"Our baby?" he asks in shock.

"Yes," Sara says firmly.

"We're having a baby?" Jack says in shock.

"We are," she says.

There is a moment of silence, "Sara, can you do me a favor and gather up the guns. I'll take care of them as soon as I come home from work. Don't ask why, it's better if you don't know."

"Jon already told me," she tells him. "And are you sure that that is the best way to deal with this?  
"If he died from a gunshot, and we get rid of all of the guns, then he can't die," Jack points out logically.

"I know, but maybe we could just do some kind of training…" Sara begins.

"No, we aren't taking any chances," Jon says, "He's my son, and I will do anything within my power to protect him," he says firmly.

"Ok, I'll go find them," Sara agrees.

"Thanks," he mutters, "I am really excited," he assures her in a voice that does not sound that excited.

"I know, and you are going to get a lot more excited when you are done being so worried."


	11. Chapter 11

**Wow guys! I'm sorry. I uploaded a random chapter from another study. This one might make a bit more sense.**

**Two weeks later…**

When Jon comes home from work he hears his daughter crying. He stumbles into his daughter's room to change her before heading into Sam's room to wake her up. It takes two nudges before he wakes her up.

"What's going on?" she asks, confused and just a tiny bit scared.

"She was crying, and you didn't hear her," Jon mutters.

"I'm sorry, I've just been so tired."

"No big deal, she's hungry," he prompts. "Maybe you are going to have to start pumping so that I can take nighttime duty once in a while."

"You work," she mutters.

"I know, but you need to sleep," he insists.

"You're tired, too, Jon," she says.

"Is it ok if I sit here until she's done? I'd like to take her back when you're done."

"Sure, go ahead… lay down."

-0-0-0-

"Sammy, I'm heading to work," Jacob says, coming into her room. Suddenly, the eyes bulge out of his head.

"Jonathan!" Jacob shouts.

Jane starts crying in terror. Jon gropes to comfort his daughter, and accidently comes into contact with Sam's breast, still bare from last night's feeding.

"Shit," he mutters.

"What the hell is going on?" Jacob says.

"Dad, he brought me a hungry baby last night, we fell asleep."

"And I'm supposed to believe you? You have a kid together, and you SWORE to me that nothing was happening," he says through clenched teeth.

"And that kid is in bed with us, Sir," Jon points out.

"And even if we were… It's way too soon after the baby," Sam points out.

"And we're fully dressed," Jacob says.

"Well…" Sam says.

"Ok, fully dressed except for the part of Sam that my daughter gets her nutrition from," Jon says. Jane starts fussing, "Speaking of which, I think she could use a little something to eat."

Sam takes her from his arms.

"And then you can go back to sleep for a little while. I've got her."

"Ok. Why don't you get ready for the day while I'm feeding her," Sam suggests. Jon stands up to do as Sam suggests.

Jacob is struck by how well the two of them work together. And their logical arguments have convinced him. He no longer thinks that something went on in his daughter's bed last night.

"You guys are going to stay in separate beds from now on, right?"

"Yes, sir," Jon says.

-0-0-0-

**Ten months later…**

"You started Daddy duty over an hour ago, where were you?" Sam scolds, walking toward Jon.

"I'm sorry. My replacement showed up late for work. I couldn't very well leave the place unguarded."

"Yeah, well I couldn't very well leave my child unsupervised, so I missed a class."

"I'm really sorry," Jon says.

"I know you couldn't help it," she says, giving him a kiss as she hands the baby to him.

"Dada!" Jane says as she puts her tiny arms around her father's neck.

"Did you hear that?" Sam says.

He nods his head, and there is something about his face that she can't figure out. "You don't seem particularly surprised by our daughter's first word."

"Dada," she says again, snuggling her head against her father's chest.

"That _is_ her first word, isn't it?" Sam asks, suddenly suspicious.

"Yes, 'dada' was her first word," Jon says carefully.

"And she just said it now?" Sam asks.

Jon looks away.

"How long has she been talking?" Sam demands

"She said it for the first time on Tuesday after lunch. She wanted out of that high chair that she hates so much."

"And why exactly didn't you tell me?"

"I swear, I didn't encourage her to say that."

"Honey, you honestly think I care what her first word is? I'm just so glad that she is talking." She coos at her daughter, "You are talking, aren't you, big girl? Yes, you are."

"I never encouraged her to say 'dada' first. I swear, Sam."

"_I've_ been encouraging her to say that," Sam says with a laugh.

"You'd better go, you're late for class," Jon says, nodding to her.

"It's ok, I missed my first class, and I don't have another one for a couple of hours."

"So we get a couple of hours together?" Jon asks excitedly.

"We really need to take more time together, if you're so excited just to spend a few hours with me," Sam says sadly.

"Ok, family date! Let's go to the park," Jon says.

-0-0-0-

"That kid is eating sand," Sam points out.

"Yeah, that's pretty typical," Jon says.

"Well, if Jane starts eating sand, I am going to stop her."

"You wanted time to spend with me. So let's not talk about the kid," Jon requests, grabbing her hand.

"You're right, our lives really have revolved around Jane. Oddly, I end up thinking a lot more about her since I went back to school. I spend less time with her, but yet she is in my thoughts more than she ever was before."

"Now you know how I felt all those months when you were at home with her, and I was going off to work every night."

"You're a really good dad."

"And you're an amazing mom," he says, pulling her into a one armed hug.

"But we really haven't figured out who we are, together. You and me, that whole thing has really not even begun."

"I think we need to start doing date nights, now that Jane is a little bit older," Jon says.

"Ok, but who are we going to leave her with?" Sam says.

"Your dad, your brother?" Jon replies, as if she was asking a particularly strange question.

"I don't know if I'd let Mark stay alone with her."

"Why not?" he asks.

"Seriously? Do you not remember the fact that he is a teenage drunk?"

"He's been sober for a year," Jon points out.

"I know, but he was still a drunk."

"Sam, he's been sober for almost as long as he was drinking. You have to forgive that. You have to trust him again."

She nods her head, "Ok, but the first time that Mark is left alone with her, Dad stays."

"Ok, as long as you realize that isn't really alone," Jon points out.

"Crap! Jane is eating sand!" Sam says, jumping up and running toward her daughter at full speed.

"That's not sand," Jon mutters, hoping Sam never figures this out.

-0-0-0-

"Ok, stop, we agreed that we are not going to talk about Jane," Jon reminds Sam, as she launches into the discussion of her daughter for the fifth time during a twenty minutes of dinner they have enjoyed so far.

"I'm sorry," she mutters, "I'm just not sure that there is anything to me except for my daughter."

"Why don't you tell me about school?" he asks.

"You don't want to hear about that," she mutters.

"You know, it's crazy. I always used to tease her about the technical talk that she did. But you have no idea how much I miss it. Give me that technobabble," he says.

She grins, and then launches into a very scientific discussion. He does seem interested for quite some time. He even asks some pretty intelligent questions. But after twenty minutes, she can see that his eyes are glossing over.

"I'm sorry, I've been talking way too long. It's your turn to talk about something you are passionate about."

"Well, in a few months they are going to come out with a new cartoon that is going to be really great…" he begins, with a grin on his face.

-0-0-0-

Sam hates the fact that Jon has Jane all day, while she gets the night shift with her daughter. To be sure, she loves giving her daughter dinner, and a bath, and reading her stories. But after that, there isn't really much to do until morning. Of course, Sam has to sleep at some point, and there is always some studying to do. But she does most of her studying at the library between classes.

So she often uses the early evening for cleaning.

Usually she just takes care of her own room, her daughter's, and the group areas of the house. She tells the boys that they are all old enough to take care of their own messes. But at some point, the room which belongs to her brother and boyfriend reaches the point that it qualifies for hazmat regulations.

Sam heads into the room, and starts dumping most of the contents into a large garbage bag.

Her brother's nightstand is mostly full of gum wrappers.

Her boyfriend's had much less trash, and… a velvet box.

Her heart almost stops. Should she open it? No, she should definitely keep it as a surprise for when he wanted to give it to her. But, she had to know what was inside. She couldn't wait another second. She had to know.

She pops it open. It's simple, it's elegant. It's perfect.

"Sam," his voice says behind her.

She snaps the box shut and turns around with a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry," she says, dropping the box and running out of the room.

He knows exactly where she went. He sits down on the porch next to her.

"I swear I was just cleaning your room. I wasn't snooping or anything," she says.

"It's ok, Sam. I'm actually kind of glad that you found it."

"So, how long have you had it?" she asks, looking away. Maybe he brought it with him. Maybe it doesn't mean what she thinks it means.

"A couple of weeks," he says, "I didn't know how to bring it up. I've been trying to think of some words that would let you know how much you meant to me. That would let you know that I wasn't just marrying you because of Jane. Or because of her, you know the other Samantha. Or because of any other reason than the fact that I've fallen head of heals for you."

She looks at him, "I think those were pretty good words."

"Is that a yes, Samantha?" he asks, holding out the ring to her between two fingers.

"Yeah, I can't imagine my life without you, and I don't want to, Jon."

"You're not going to have to," he says, pulling her into a hug and kissing her temple. "You know, I never would have thought in a million years that I would end up with someone like you. You and I, we are worlds apart. And then this crazy thing brought us together. But there still shouldn't have been this between us, this love. I really wasn't expecting the love."

"I love you, too," she says in the starry-eyed way that only a teenager in love can say on her first time.

"Is that really the first time that I ever said that?" he asks, even though he can see from her face that it is.

She nods.

"I'm sorry," he says, twisting his hand in her hair in a way that both of them love so much, "I'm going to have to fix that. I'm going to have to make a habit of saying it."

Jacob steps on the deck on his way into the house. "Sorry, guys. I'll be out of your way in a little bit."

"Daddy, look!" Sam exclaims, waving the ring in front of her father's face.

This was definitely not the way that Jon pictured sharing the big news with Jacob. "I'm sorry, I should have talked to you again before." He suddenly remembers that the last time they discussed this, Jacob had refused to give his permission to marry his daughter. But things had changed since then. Hadn't they?

"You guys are getting married?" Jacob asks softly.

"If that's ok with you, sir," Jon mutters softly.

"It doesn't matter what you think. I'm going to be eighteen in a couple of months, and then I can get married if I want to," Sam says firmly.

"Sam, I don't want to get married against your father's wishes. Even when you are old enough that we can," Jon protests.

"Why are you guys both assuming that I am against this?" Jacob asks, holding his daughter's hand still so that he can examine the ring. "I think you guys are still pretty young, and I think it would be a good idea if you waited until she was eighteen. But if you really don't want to wait that long, I'll sign the permission slip. I mean, you guys love each other. You've been working together to raise your kid. You've been taking time out of your busy schedules to work on your relationship. I think you guys have a really good chance of making it," Jacob says.

"Thank you, Daddy," Sam says, throwing her arms around her father.

"Get in here, Son," Jacob says, extending one of his hands to pull Jon into the hug.

-0-0-0-

The wedding was small. Sam said she wanted it that way. Jon secretly suspected that the list of people who would be willing to come out and support a teenage mother marrying her baby daddy would be a short list in deed. He would have argued with her and given her the wedding that she always wanted. Only, he was afraid that she just might be right. And he wasn't going to take that chance of disappointing her.

He seriously considered threatening random people on the street to fill up a church, but he could see so many ways that that could blow up on his face.

The door opens and Jane peaks around it with terror in her eyes. There is a basket of flowers at her elbow, but most of them spill out as she peaks around the corner.

"Come on, Jane," Jon says. Her eyes go on her father, and she takes off running toward him at a full spring. She leaps into his arms like she always does, and he spins her around.

Then in come Mark and Sam's best friend from school. Then Jacob and Sam start walking down the aisle.

Jon's breathe catches in his throat. Sam is always beautiful, but this is far beyond anything he's ever seen before.

It's her mother's dress. It's not the sort of thing that she would ever pick out for herself. Sam wore skirts all the time. But they were causal sorts of skirts. She never wore things that were covered in lace and frills. But somehow, this dress that she would have never picked out, it became her in every way that you could imagine.

"Mommy!" Jane yells, jumping in her father's arms in a way that clearly indicates that she wants down. When her usual body movements don't work she adds in words, "Down!"

"Honey, we have to stand here and wait for Mommy to come to us," Jon explains to her, not wanting her to make this wedding any more of spectacle than it already was.

"Why?" the child asks skeptically.

"Because it's tradition," Jon explains.

"No! Mommy!" she says stubbornly.

Sam bends over a little, and extends her hands to her daughter. Jack sighs, and lets his daughter run into his bride's arms.

Jane gives her mother a sloppy kiss on the check before she says, "Daddy wait," and pouts.

"Yes," Sam says, looking at her groom, "But Daddy won't have to wait much longer." She holds her daughter with one hand and her dress with her other, and then she runs to her groom. When she gets there, she takes his hand and pulls him closer to her, and leans her head against him. He puts his arm around her. He feels like he should care more about what people are thinking, but the ones who really think this is improper didn't even come.

-0-0-0-

They had been so careful, in all the time that they were dating, not to do anything that had the least smack of impropriety. It was stupid, perhaps, since all the world had branded them sluts. But it was important to them, somehow, that that was all a lie. They could press on if they knew for sure that that was all a lie.

They had spent so much time living in fear of any kind of public showing of affection that it made the wedding night an awkward one.

The kissing had gone on long enough that that was awkward in itself. Then Sam made a move to remove his shirt at the same time that Jon tried to flip her on the bed of the honeymoon suit. The result was Jon standing with a shirt over his head, and Sam laughing at him from the bed.

He pulls the shirt off and glares at her, "No giggling, Samantha."

"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous," she tells him.

"You know, we don't have to do anything," he tells her.

"It's our wedding night!" she exclaims.

"And that doesn't mean anything. We can ease into this, if you want. We don't actually have to do everything all in one night. If you just want to take a little step tonight, and…" he says.

"Snuggle?" she asks, rolling over.

"I'd like that," he says, spooning up against her back. He feels her body relax a second after. He can't believe the amount of tension that was in her body. He starts to stroke her hair. She makes a quiet moan.

He's about to regret bringing up the 'take it slow' philosophy when she turns to him and gives a sizzling kiss.

"I love you, Jonathan Carter," she tells him.

He'd taken her last name in an effort to hide his rather hard-to-explain past. Most people who knew him thought it was just to distance himself from uncaring parents.

It was the first time that anyone had said his new name out loud. It sounded strange to him, but it was a good kind of strange. A kind of strange that he knew would become familiar. It was a kind of strange that sounded just a little bit like home.

"And I love you, Mrs. Carter," he tells her.

She'd never realized what him taking her name really meant. It mean that she was going to keep her name. But that she would keep her name with a new affix in front of it. And that in some ways she was taking on the name of her mother. It gives her a sharp pang in her gut, but a good kind of sharp pain in her gut. She feels like she is taking up the torch her mother couldn't finish carrying. It feels like a noble job.


	12. Chapter 12

**A week later**

"Did you sleep well last night?" Jon asks Sam as he scoops eggs onto her plate. It's the first day back from their honeymoon. Towards the end of the honeymoon, they'd given up on all speech except for double innuendos. After a few days of that, everything sounded dirty. So his innocent question causes her cheeks to flame red in a blush.

Jacob laughs, "I can't believe how much of a blushing bride you are, Sam."

She blushes again. Jack puts a protective hand around her and guides her to the kitchen table.

"From the way you are acting, I can be pretty sure that you kept your promise not to have sex after Jane entered the picture," Jacob says, "If you had, I would have known about it by your blushes."

Sam laughs nervously, and Jon fidgets.

Jacob stares at them for a second, "How could I didn't notice before? I mean before Jane. Was I really so out of it that I didn't notice Sam blushing at every word?"

"Well, sir, it's not like you actually saw us together," Jon points out.

"True," Jacob says slowly, "But you guys are way over-the-top honeymoon crazy. You wouldn't think you would be like this unless it was really the first time that you…"

"Dad!" Sam says, flushing brighter red.

"You know, it's crazy, sometimes I almost think that Jane…" But he stops himself, shaking his head.

"What?" Jon presses the older man.

"I don't know," Jacob says, "Sometimes it almost seems like she was a gift from the stork."

"You know, Daddy, you're not far off," Sam says.

"If the stork is a stupid boy with too many hormones," Jon says.

But Sam's eyes stay locked on her father. "Sammy, there is something about Jane I don't know,"

he says. "Only because you wouldn't have believed me," Sam tells him.

"Try me," Jacob presses.

"I really don't think this is a good idea," Jon tells her.

"Daddy, I was a virgin when I got married," Sam proclaims.

"Right, technically, Jon told me about the way your daughter was conceived," Jacob says.

Sam cuts off her father before he can continue. "No, not technically. I'd never touched a boy. Not kissed or held hands with, and definitely nothing that could have resulted in me getting pregnant."

"Sam," Jacob says disbelievingly.

"See, I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"You're serious?" he asks.

"I swear, Dad," she says.

"So you never really dated Jon?"

"I met him on the day that he got introduced to you."

"No, Mark said that he remembered meeting Jon a bunch of times before," Jacob says in shock.

"Yeah, Jon is really good at convincing people of things," Sam says, a bit bashfully.

"So why is Jon around?" Jacob says, "Not that I'm not really excited that he's living here. Don't misunderstand me. I like this situation."

"Well, Jon is Jane's dad," she says carefully.

"Wait, you mean because he chose to be, right?"

"Not only because he chose to be," she says.

"I don't understand. How do you know that he is the father if you don't know how you got pregnant?" Jacob demands, sounding angry.

Sam's mouth opens and closes a couple of times as she tries to think of something to say.

"What the hell did he do to you, Sam?" Jacob asks, trying to keep himself below the level of shouting.

"He didn't do anything wrong," Sam says softly, looking into his eyes.

"I'm having a hard time believing that," he says, bringing his voice down into a slightly lower tone.

She flinches, "Yeah, I am suddenly remembering why I didn't want to tell you all of this. There is a danger in you not believing me. So here it goes. I am going to tell you the whole truth. And then at least, when you conclude that I am insane, I will have tried." She takes a huge breath before she goes on, "Dad, in the future, an alien will abduct Jack. He's going to clone him without his permission. Then he is going to transfer all of his memories into the clone. That clone is going to call himself Jon. Then, the same alien is going to time travel into the past with, ah… certain bodily fluids. And he is going to abduct me. Then he is going to use those body parts to make Jane inside of me."

Jacob stares at her for a really long second.

"You're trying to tell me that an alien abduction is the reason you had a baby at sixteen?" he says.

"See, I knew you would never believe me," she says, "I should have kept going with the lie."

"He told you that he's the father?" Jacob asks.

"I know he is. She even looks like him," Sam says.

He puts an arm around her, "Ok, honey, so let's forget the whole science fiction thing for a second. You don't remember having sex, and when you find out you are pregnant, some guy claims to be the father. What is the logical conclusion?"

"No, dad, Jon would NEVER do that," Sam says firmly, breaking from her father's grasp.

"Sam, how do you know?"

"Jacob, I know this is a little far in the future, but I can tell you who will win the world series and Stanley cup this year. I wish I knew game by game, for me this was a long time ago, and I only remember the big games."

"The seasons have barely started," Jacob protests.

"Which is why you'd believe me," Jon says.

"How'd you convince Sam?" Jacob asks.

"I knew she was pregnant, and what she was thinking about being pregnant," Jon explains.

"What was she thinking?" Jacob asks looking at both of them.

"She had no idea how this happened to her, and she was worried about what you would think," Jack says with a selective summary.

"Hold it," Jacob says looking at Jon with widening eyes, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"Really?" he asks with narrowing eyes.

"Well, that depends on your definition of age," Jon hedges.

"Jonathan O'Neill, I am asking how old my son-in-law is," Jacob demands keeping as much anger out of his voice as he can.

"Apparently there was another reason not to tell him," Sam flinches.

"Sam, how old is he?" Jacob asks going after someone he thinks will be the weaker link. He's right, but weaker link in this couple is like talking about the shortest guy in the NBA.

"I don't even really know. Do you go by the length his body's existed? The age his body looks like? Or the age of the guy he's cloned from. 'Cause you know what, they're all lies. He wants to be nineteen, so he's nineteen," she says.

Jacob nods his head, but his stomach is still turning.

"I'm the same guy that I was yesterday," Jack points out.

"Yes, the same old man whose making my little girl happy."

Jack smiles at his acceptance, even though he knows there is going to be a lot of old man and robbing the cradle jokes in the near future.

Jane's tiny footsteps are heard in the doorway.

"Hi sweetie!" Sam exclaims running over to greet her daughter. When they got home the night before she was already in bed.

Jane starts to wail.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" Sam asks looking at her daughter.

"Dampa!" Jane shouts in alarm reaching for Jacob. He's confused, but he stands up to take her from her parents.

Jacob doesn't understand what's going on, but he stands up to retrieve his granddaughter. "What's wrong, baby girl?" he asks softly.

Jane barriers her face in his shoulder, and then pulls her head back to glare at her mother. Then she turns her head and glares at her father. "Way!" she demands.

"You want us to go away?" Sam asks confused.

"Maybe she's mad at us for being gone," Jack suggests.

"Ooo?" Jane asks her Grandpa.

"You know who that is, that is your mother and father."

"'Way," she insists hiding her face.

"She doesn't remember us?" Sam says looking at the men for confirmation.

"We've been gone a week, a two year olds memory isn't that long," Jack says.

"My daughter doesn't remember me," Sam says with alarm.

"We just have to give her time to get used to us. Give her a little space," Jack assures her putting a hand on her shoulder.

"After she loves me again, I am never let her out of my sight again," Sam says.

"Sammy," Jacob begins.

But Jack just shakes his head. He suddenly has an idea. He leans over and whispers something to Jacob. Then he turns to his new wife, "Sam, come with me."

"I get all of this about giving her space, but I don't want to leave the room, and I'm right in the middle of breakfast."

"Trust, babe, is the foundation of a marriage."

"As is listening, and I think I told you not to call you babe."

He holds out his hand to her, and she takes shaking her head.

"We called her every night, and she remembered us in the phone calls right," he says once they are on the porch.

"Yeah, fat lot of good it did us," Sam says.

He holds out a phone to her.

"But that's the cordless phone." *

He nods.

"From the house."

He nods again.

"You can't call your own number, Jon."

"Wow, seriously? You've never called your own number. My first prank. You dial, hang up, and then pick up a second later."

"Really?"

He does a complicated phone dance, and then hands her the phone.

"Sweetie, it's Mommy."

"Mama!" she exclaims excitedly.

"Jane, I'm coming home, are you ready?"

Sam opens up the door. "I'm hear baby girl," she says on the phone.

"Mama?" the little girl says suspiciously.

"It's me," she assures her.

"'essed Mommy."

"I missed you too," she tells her little girl.

"Dada?" the girl asks suspiciously looking at her father.

"Yes," he says.

"Up!" she says putting her hands up.

Neither parent knows which one she wants. They glance at each other, and then they both pick her up.

"'tay?" the little girl begs.

"Yeah, we're not planning on leaving again for a while," Jack says.

"And if we do we'll take you with," Sam says.

"Thanks for taking good care of our little one while we were gone," Jack says to Jacob.

"It was my pleasure, we enjoyed our Grandpa/Granddaughter time didn't we?" he asks.

"Mama, Dada, 'om," she tells him.

"And our warm fussy times are over," he jokes.

"You'll have lots of warm fussy times in the future," Sam assures him.

"Yes, the joys of sharing a house with you we'll have lots of warm fussy times in the future," Sam assures him.

"Yes, the joys of sharing a house with your grandkids," Jacob says with a smile.

"Ah, about that, Dad," Sam says.

"Not right now, Sammy," Jon warns.

"What?" Jacob asks.

No one answers him.

"You're moving out now?" he asks.

"Not for a few months, I mean, these things take time," Sam says. It wasn't until now that she realized this was going to hurt her father. She wants to regret it, but she is ready to start a life apart from her father. Especially now that she and Jon have decided to have another baby. This house would be too crowed for all of that.

"And it's not like we're planning on moving far away. Or on never seeing you again," Jon says.

"Right, Jon and I talked about having a weekly dinner with you and Mark. And more…we still want to see you all the time," Sam offers with a smile.

"Seriously, I knew you guys were going to move out eventually. I'm fine with it. Just know that you are welcome here anytime," Jacob assures them.

"Same will be true for our place, Dad," Jack says.

***This story is still set in the world before cell phones, or at least before cell phones were popular.**


End file.
